Thursday of the First Week in Lent

 Lectionary: 227

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.

 I f you can still bear to watch the daily news; and see so many dreadful things happening; and see that the present policies of many governments are only making it worse: you may decide to stop watching altogether. You might resort to a wilderness of principled solitude where you can pray that God sends his Judge with an army of angels to save you -- and soon!

In the face of an impending holocaust, Queen Esther resorted to prayer but she wasn't seeking her private deliverance from the coming catastrophe. She had to save her people, and only she could do it. 

But she also knew her helplessness amid the absurd -- comically absurd -- structures of her world, and that only God could make a difference. 

Ironically, God does not appear in the Book of Esther; the book narrates only the work and words of ordinary mortals. When salvation comes, it comes by way of Esther's bold initiative. After intense prayer and fasting, she dolls up in her finest, most attractive royal clothes and places herself where no man can ignore her. She knocks on no door but she opens one: 

Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal garments and stood in the inner courtyard, looking toward the royal palace, while the king was seated on his royal throne in the audience chamber, facing the palace doorway.

When he saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she won his favor and he extended toward her the golden scepter he held. She came up to him, and touched the top of the scepter.]

Then the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even if it is half of my kingdom, it shall be granted to you." (Esther 5:1-3)

The latest stories to appear in the Hebrew Scriptures (most of which comprise the "Old Testament," are fascinating for the non-appearance of God. At best he moves people through dreams. The long story of Joseph tagged onto the end of Genesis, and the books of Tobit and Judith, say nothing about God's activity. They are stories of courageous persons who pray, trust their intuitions, and take action. None of them can know whether the Lord approves or disapproves of their decision; they certainly cannot control what consequences might follow. But they act. 

The Church tells innumerable stories of witnesses -- we call them martyrs -- who met severe disapproval by this world's standards and, with their dying breath, could only hope that God blessed their boldness. In some cases, later generations of Christian critics actually disapprove of those ancient initiatives. Were those crusaders who died in their assault on Jerusalem martyrs or fools? We certainly cannot endorse the suicide bombers who oppose tyrants in Asian and African capitals. They kill innocent people in churches, markets, and shopping centers. But they think they're martyrs. 

Many Christians, far from positions of power, worry anxiously whether their silent, idle disapproval of fellow Christians might be mortal sins and incur God's eternal wrath. Esther had no time for scruples. Judith knew she had to lie and deceive Holofernes before she killed him in his drunken sleep -- regardless of what anyone might think of lying, deceiving, and beheading. (The Divine Author discreetly passes over any other sins she might have committed with him.) Nor did these men and women worry that God might not approve of their actions. They did what they had to do, and let God think about it.

Jesus also knew that terrible silence during his last hours.  

In today's gospel the Lord urges us to pray persistently: 

Ask and it will be given to you;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

When it is given to us; when we find what we're looking for; when the door opens: we'll pass through it.