Fr. J. D. Ousley

As I need to get up early on Sunday mornings, I normally don't go to social events on Saturday nights. Often, though ,on Saturdays, I go out for a walk after dinner. This gives me a chance to buy the Sunday paper and to relax and think.

For some months last winter, I noticed that when I took my walk in the vicinity of the United Nations, I would often see odd-looking people on bicycles. These people were dressed in colorful, orange uniforms and they carried large pouches on their backs.

It turned out that these bicyclists were employed by a company called, "Kosmo.com." The company delivered all sorts of consumer items, like videos and books and popcorn and ice cream. You placed your order via the Internet; Kosmo guaranteed that a messenger would bring the goods right to your door within an hour.

It's hard to imagine a more striking illustration of getting what you ask for. The ideals of Kosmo.com are interesting to compare with the famous words of Jesus about making requests to God: "Ask, and it will be given to you."

These words are at the center of the Gospel lesson today. In this text, Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."

No wonder that asking for things became a central part of Christian faith. From the votive candles in churches, which people light when they make a special prayer, to the memorial flowers on the altar, to the names of the sick remembered at every worship service: All in all, Christians do a lot of asking!

Yet religious asking is radically different from the secular kind.

We make a big mistake if we treat God as a kind of cosmic "service provider." The Holy Spirit doesn't work at our command! Nor should we think of ourselves primarily as consumers of divine services.

Asking God for things doesn't work this way. For one thing, it would be impossible for God to grant every request. Prayers from two soldiers on opposite sides of a battlefield praying for victory can't both be honored.

And a greedy dictator, lighting a candle in church in the hope that his Tyranny will become even strongerv -- his prayer can't be honored by a just God.

Asking God for things is like secular asking in that for both kinds of requests, there are limits. Kosmo.com found there were services it couldn't provide, and the company went out of business. While God is infinite, God can't give us things that are impossible for him to grant.

Yet the logic here is complex. I can't, for example, request a completely peaceful life. Even though such a life might be what I think I want, it would be a disaster.

The absence of challenge would make me into a spiritual slug. Without goals that pushed me, I would sink into moral lethargy. I wouldn't be inspired to help those in need. I would lack courage and strength and faith because I would never be required to develop such qualities.

Another feature of prayer, however, does help us to get what we want. And people often miss this side of the act of praying. Asking God not only triggers a response from God; asking also changes us.

Have you ever wondered why you need to make requests to God in the first place? After all, God knows everything. (Jesus himself once observed that "your Heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him.")

My answer to this question would be that we should make requests to God, even though he already knows what we want -- because requests make us different.

When I pray, the sheer act of praying opens my life to new possibilities. If I have a personal prayer list, for example, then reciting the names on it every day will focus my spiritual attention on the specific people I'm praying for. By mentioning each name in my prayers, I make myself more aware of my friends and acquaintances as I encounter them. And I find that I'm more likely to look for other ways to help them.

This benefit of prayer is in addition to anything God might do in response to my need. My new openness is a direct result of what I do.

Another unusual thing about the logic of prayer is this: even if my friend doesn't get the job I was praying for him to get-even though, technically speaking, my prayer remains unanswered -- still, I may find that my prayers have taught me something about who I am.

Just by offering someone's problem to God day after day, I find that I am more considerate of that person. While I ask God to help, I also open myself up to be helpful as well.

So prayer changes me, and by changing me, prayer helps me to change others.

One final feature of religious asking is that it occurs in the context of other spiritual practices. At the same time that Jesus teaches, "Ask and you will receive," he also says, "seek, and you will find," and he says, "knock, and it will be opened unto you."

For Christians, "asking" occurs as part of a spiritual search. The Bible passage ends with Christ's promise that "the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."

Petitions to God thus form part of our life in the Spirit. Prayer is more than asking for things; it is above all asking for the Spirit.

In the toughest times, when no easy solution to our problems is forthcoming, we may still find our prayers bring us spiritual consolation. Even when I don't get what I pray for, I may still be given inner confidence that I'm journeying in the right direction. And while I may not receive what I ask for, I may find what I am seeking. Amen.

And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever. Amen.