Daily Gospel Reflection
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October 12, 2023
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
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.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”
Although in today’s gospel, Jesus touches on many crucial themes of the spiritual life, such as the fundamental goodness of God, the value of dogged persistence in prayer, and the unconditional love of God, I want to focus on the final sentence and specifically on the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus says today that the Father will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him,” we should be shocked. This is the Holy Spirit by which the Virgin Mary conceived the Son of God, by which Samson was able to pull down a house with his bare arms, and by which St. Peter raised Tabitha back to life. Although we have done nothing to deserve this gift and, as the Lord calls us today, “are wicked,” Jesus nonetheless ensures us that the Father will freely grant us the Holy Spirit if we but ask.
The act of asking, however, is not a small thing. In asking for help, we make ourselves vulnerable and acknowledge that we lack something we cannot obtain on our own. It is precisely this childlike humility and spiritual poverty that the Lord seeks to cultivate within us today by urging us to ask God for his Holy Spirit, the same Spirit he has personally guaranteed to all who ask it of him.
We have nothing to lose and everything to gain in keeping the simple prayer: “Come Holy Spirit” upon our lips. What fools we would be to refrain from begging the Lord for this great gift!
Prayer
Father, sometimes we get discouraged and cynical. Deep down we know that despite our expectations, somehow and some way you must be answering our prayers. May the Spirit help us to look more closely at the Gospel and see how you really answer prayer. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Cyprian and Felix were bishops who stood at the head of 5,000 people who were driven into the desert because they were Christian.
Cyprian and Felix led communities in northern Africa in the fifth-century Church. When the area came under the power of the Vandals, the foreign king persecuted Christians by exiling them into a prison in the Libyan desert. They were tortured on their way, and many died during the journey.
The Vandal king finally decided to have them killed by being led out into the wilderness. The Christians emerged from the prison singing psalms together. Felix was very old and disabled, and it was suggested that he could be left alone to die, but the king ordered him to be taken out on a donkey. Stones were thrown at the Christians, and those who fell behind were pricked with spears to urge them forward until they died of exhaustion and exposure.
Cyprian was another bishop who tended these persecuted Christians, and it is reported that he spent all of his time and energy and resources caring for them. He was eventually also arrested and exiled, where he died from the harsh treatment.
Relics of Sts. Cyprian and Felix rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Sts. Cyprian and Felix, you supported your persecuted community experiencing exile and martyrdom—pray for us!