“how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

In our first reading we hear of Abraham’s negotiation with God over the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We might think that these evil cities with their many sins, their outright lack of any kindness or compassion, deserved to be destroyed. Why would anyone want them to survive? Abraham isn’t ignorant or clueless. He knows what is going on. Yet, Abraham seeks to give the possibility of some good and just persons in those cities the benefit of the doubt. He encounters God with those possibilities and stands in the gap to give them a chance. So, he calls out those possibilities even to the smallest of possibilities: “What if there are at least ten there?” God replies, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.” In other words, God listens to the pleading of His people. 

Jesus as God’s Son understands the relationship between people in need and God. When Jesus’ disciples ask Him to teach them to pray, He offers the perfect prayer, the Our Father.

In that prayer we first acknowledge Who God is and give Him fitting praise. We seek His will and offer our wills so that they may be conformed to His. Then we lay out our needs, our need for daily bread, a request for forgiveness, to be saved from every evil temptation, and a request to delivered from those evils.

The Church in Her wisdom helps us to understand this prayer in a deeper way. In the year 604 it added a short prayer following the Our Father which is technically called the Embolism. This is because the last petitions of the Our Father might be confusing: Lead us not into temptation and Deliver us from evil.

In the embolism we hear:

Deliver us Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In Your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety

That is so easy to connect with, to be delivered from evil, to live in peace, be protected from sin, and from every type of anxiety. This is what God knows we need and what we ask for so He created the Our Father so we might ask for them.

Jesus finally lays out a parable concerning asking, advising us to be persistent. He sets forth analogies concerning good gifts from those who love us.

God loves us greatly, beyond all measure, and holds gifts for us. He meets our needs, protects us – most particularly from anxieties – and as Jesus concludes He lets us know the best gift, the eternal gift of the Holy Spirit is ours for the asking. We receive His phenomenal gifts of wisdom, understanding counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Treasure God’s gifts and never be afraid to ask, to be persistent, and never be afraid to believe that God will deliver on His promises.