Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 10, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.”
Growing up, my dad would joke that he had “tentacles” I would never escape. Wherever life brought me, I’d always meet someone he knew. College shook me free of his social reach a little, and in seminary I thought I’d fled entirely. Then on a pilgrimage to Israel wandering through the remains of Magdala, I got into a conversation with a man who eventually asked, “Wait, are you Bob’s son?”
When we seek, we find. Jesus promised it. However, what we expect when we seek rarely matches what we find. Sometimes we find only our irked and chafing restlessness, dissatisfied with the very thing we believed would make us happy. Sometimes we find something we did not want (or thought we did not want). Did Jesus’ promise fail? Of course not. Even when we run, we still find our Father. Our unfulfilled desire is yet another good thing our Father gives to those who ask. It points us to God, our deepest desire.
In Lent, it’s good to ask: what are we seeking and what are we expecting to find? It is also good to ask: what is seeking us and vying for our attention? Are our lives only about our seeing and seeking? Or are they fixed in the good gaze of God, whose eyes are turned towards us?
Most importantly, does our seeking make it easy for the Father to seek us?
Prayer
Lord, your son taught us that those who ask, receive; that those who seek, find; and that those who knock, have the door opened for them. May we pray with such believing faith, trusting in your divine providence, so that we may receive the gifts you wish to give to us as we faithfully seek to follow your son. Amen.
Saint of the Day
The 40 Martyrs were Roman soldiers who were put to death in Sebaste, which is in Armenia today. The account of these martyrs is well-documented historically, and inspired great faithfulness in the ancient Church.
Around the year 320, the emperor of the eastern Roman empire, Lucinius, issued a decree ordering every Christian to renounce their faith or face death. When this decree was announced to the Roman army, 40 soldiers of different nationalities—all part of a famous “Thundering Legion”—refused to comply with the order to sacrifice to Roman gods. They were brought to trial in Sebaste, and the governor there threatened them with disgrace if they continued, and promised promotions for any who renounced their faith. They all stood firm.
The governor then devised a plan to test their faith. They were to be placed upon a frozen lake, naked and exposed to the howling wind, until they either changed their minds or froze to death. The 40 did not wait to be stripped, but undressed themselves, and encouraged one another in the ordeal. A fire and warm baths were prepared at the edge of the lake, and they were told that they could come in from the ice and warm themselves if they turned away from Christianity.
For three days and nights, the group endured. One young soldier decided to leave the group for the warmth of the baths, but the shock to his system killed him. One of the guards, seeing this disgrace, was inspired by the resolve of the remaining 39. When he was off-duty, he fell asleep by the fire and had a dream in which angels descended upon the soldiers on the lake and crowned them. He counted only 39 crowns, and decided to join them. He put down his arms and cloak, proclaimed himself a Christian, and walked out to the group on the ice, bringing the number of martyrs back to 40.
By the morning of the fourth day, most were dead, and the remaining were killed. All the bodies were burned in a furnace, and their ashes thrown into a river. The Christian community recovered some of the charred remains.
The family of St. Basil the Great—whose parents and three siblings are all saints—were among those who helped to gather what remained of these martyrs. The witness of these soldiers moved this holy family, as well as many other Christians, to greater faithfulness.
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, who froze to death on an ice-covered lake instead of renouncing your faith—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste is in the public domain. Last accessed February 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
