In Today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals more of the Father’s will for us. Like most earthly Fathers, He is eager to give us good things. But He is capable of giving us things that are beyond what is possible for any creature to give another. First and foremost, God gives us the gift of ‘being’. Our very existence from moment to moment is given by God. To exist is not owed to us. We are radically contingent. This contingency can even be scary sometimes if we reflect deeply enough. It is possible, in principle, that we might not exist in the next moment.
Certainly, our earthly days are known to God and us. Yet, when we are born, we are given this gift on a permanent basis. Yet, I want to stress the gratuitous nature of our existence. The whole of the cosmos, all that is not God, is in the same state we are. From here, God wills that we actualize more of who we are made to be. We have these potentials for beatitude within us that manifest more of who God is the more they are actualized. The Father desires that we come to Him and ask for these things. This is, I think, bound up in the concept of seeking and knocking the Lord Jesus refers to in the opening verses today. We need to seek God and only Him for the eternal immutable truths and transcendent reality to which we are naturally drawn.
The Father may give us these good things in various ways, for God delights in utilizing secondary causes to bring about His desired effects. Further, we must remember that God is the only One able to give from pure love and from infinite abundance. Only He can give us the things we need for eternal life and happiness.
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