by Fr. Patrick Greenough, OFM Conv. MI National President USA & Canada
Seek, Ask and Knock
Jesus said, Ask and it will be given to you Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.
Do you not think that the prisoners in Auschwitz asked until they were hoarse? Do you not think that they searched everywhere in the camp? Do you not think that they knocked until their knuckles were bloody?
Then where was God? God was there in the person of Maximilian Kolbe. Not watching idly by from a distance, but dying once again, laying down his life for a friend.
Then what did Jesus mean when He said Ask, and Seek and Knock? Was it just a pious phrase unattainable for the million of prisoners who would eventually die in Auschwitz?
We cannot take the death of millions lightly and neither can we take the words of Jesus lightly. So how do we reconcile the two?
It all depends on what we are Asking for, Seeking after and what door we are Knocking on.
Maximilian Kolbe was Asking for Faith. He had entered into the gates of hell, where work did not make free. He asked for a Faith to still believe in God.
He was Seeking Love. Not just any love. Not a love of things, or even family and friends. He was seeking to love his enemies. Not just his enemies but those who sought to destroy and annihilate all he built, and all those he loved and everything he believed in.
He was Knocking on the starvation bunker door.
A door on which most people never knock.
But a door which led him to his Crucified Lord because he had been asking for it and seeking it all his life.
The truth is, Jesus WILL give us what we ask for, what we seek and He will open the door on which we knock.
What are we Asking for? What are we Seeking? What door are we Knocking on?