God, the Loving Father!

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Esth 12:14-16, 23-25; Mt 7:7-12

Today’s Gospel explains relationality from the perspective of God and neighbors. 

Jesus highlights the need for a more natural relationship between God and people, taking trust in the fact that we are the beloved children of the loving Father. 

What Jesus underlines here is that God is not an impersonal or distant entity but a loving Father who meticulously attends to the needs of His children. Hence, boosted up by the unconditional goodness of the loving Father, the children are to place their requests as represented by the three words, ‘ask, seek, and knock.’

Through his exposition, Jesus does not only abolish the needless distance between God and the people but also shows that God’s goodness is both unfailing and everlasting. To prove his point, he invokes the example of human love and sacrifice. If we who are finite and weak are capable of love and goodness, how much more will God be who is infinitely good and holy?

Thus, by talking about the goodness and unconditional love of God, Jesus infuses confidence in us that, as rightful children, we can always approach God in hope and trust. 

Secondly, Jesus gives us a simple principle to nurture long-lasting relationships with our neighbors. Here, Jesus invites us to learn the secret of mutual upholding by only doing to our neighbors what we would expect them to do to us. Reciprocal goodness is the foundation for loving relationships. 

Let us pray that we may appreciate and nourish our relationship with God and our neighbors. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar