Esther 4:17 / Matthew 7:7-12
If I were to ask you to refer to today's readings, those who have the weekday missals will probably open it and look at it.
For those who do not have the weekday missal, then there is no need to do anything or just look at something else.
So the response to my request is not crucial. You can do as I asked or you can just ignore the request without responding to it.
But if I were to plead with you, if I were to implore you, if I were to beseech you, then it would be very different because there is an urgency and gravity about the matter.
Such is the case with queen Esther in the 1st reading. She prayed to the Lord God of Israel. But she was not merely asking the Lord. She besought the Lord; she was pleading and imploring the Lord to save her and her people from mortal danger.
She began with these words: My Lord, our King, the only one, come to my help, for I am alone and have no helper but you.
And she ended her prayer with these words: Come to my help, for I am alone and have no one but you Lord.
For queen Esther, her prayer is one of pleading, imploring and beseeching. For queen Esther, the Lord God is her only hope. There were no other options.
In the gospel, Jesus said: Ask and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.
But if our prayer is only mere asking, if we are not desperately searching, and if we have options of a few doors to knock on, then it could mean that the Lord God is NOT our one and only hope.
Let us plead, let us implore and let us beseech the Lord our God, and we will be given, we will find and that door of hope will be opened for us.