Asking And Receiving

Venit, inquit, ad amicum suum, cui hospes venerat; et coepit pulsare, et dicere: Hospes mihi venit, commoda mihi tres panes. Respondit ille: Iam requiesco, et mecum servi mei requiescunt. Ille non cessat, astat, instat, pulsat; et tamquam amicus ab amico mendicat. Et quid ait: Dico vobis, quia surgit, et non propter amicitiam eius, sed propter improbitatem dat illi quantos voluerit. Non propter amicitiam, quamvis amicus sit, sed propter improbitatem. Quid est, propter improbitatem? Quia pulsare non destitit: quia et cum esset negatum, non se avertit. Ille qui nolebat dare, quod petebatur fecit, quia ille in petendo non defecit. Quanto magis dabit bonus, qui nos hortatur ut petamus; cui displicet, si non petamus? Sed cum aliquando tardius dat, commendat dona, non negat. Diu desiderata, dulcius obtinentur: cito autem data, vilescunt. Pete, quaere, insta. Petendo et quaerendo crescis, ut capias. Servat tibi Deus, quod non vult cito dare; ut et tu discas magna magne desiderare. Inde oportet semper orare, et non deficere. Si ergo, fratres mei, mendicos suos nos fecit Deus, monendo nos, et hortando et iubendo ut petamus, quaeramus, pulsemus; attendamus et nos qui a nobis petunt. Petimus nos. A quo petimus? qui petimus? quid petimus? A quo, vel qui, vel quid petimus? Petimus a Deo bono: petimus homines mali: petimus autem iustitiam, unde simus boni. Hoc ergo petimus quod in aeternum habeamus: quo cum saturati fuerimus, ulterius non egeamus. Sed ut saturemur, esuriamus et sitiamus; esuriendo et sitiendo petamus, quaeramus, pulsemus. Beati enim qui esuriunt et sitiunt iustitiam. Quare beati? Esuriunt et sitiunt, et beati sunt? Aliquando enim egestas beata est? Non inde beati sunt, quia esuriunt et sitiunt; sed quia ipsi saturabuntur. Ibi erit beatitudo in saturitate, non in fame. Sed praecedat saturitatem fames, ne fastidium non perveniat ad panes. Ergo diximus, a quo petamus, qui petamus, quid petamus. Sed petitur et a nobis. Mendici enim Dei sumus: ut agnoscat ille mendicos suos, agnoscamus et nos nostros. Sed et ibi etiam cogitemus, quando petitur a nobis, qui petunt, a quibus petunt, quid petunt. Qui petunt? Homines. A quibus petunt? Ab hominibus. Qui petunt? Mortales. A quibus petunt? A mortalibus. Qui petunt? Fragiles. A quibus petunt? A fragilibus. Qui petunt? Miseri. A quibus petunt? A miseris. Excepta substantia facultatum, tales sunt qui petunt, quales sunt a quibus petunt. Quam frontem habes petendo ad Dominum tuum, qui non agnoscis parem tuum? Non sum, inquit, talis: absit a me, ut talis sim. Inflatus obsericatus ista loquitur de pannoso. Sed ego nudos interrogo. Non interrogo in vestibus, quales sitis, sed quales nati fueritis. Ambo nudi, ambo infirmi, miseram vitam inchoantes, ideo ambo plorantes. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Sermo LXI, De Verbis Evangelli, Petite Et Dabitur Vobis Source: Migne PL 38.411-412

He to whom a guest has come, goes to his friend and he begins to knock and say, 'A guest has come to me, help me out with three loaves.' The friend answers: 'I am in bed, and my servants like me.' 1 The man who knocks does not stop, he stands, he persists, he knocks, and as a friend from a friend he begs. And I say to you he rises up, not because of friendship, but because of insistence he is pleased to give him as much as he wishes. Not on account of friendship, although he is a friend, but on account of persistence. What is this persistence? Because he does not cease to knock, because even when he is denied, he does not turn away. He who is unwilling to give, because he is pestered, he gives, because the one who sought did not desist. How much shall He who is good give, who exhorts us to seek, who is displeased when we do not seek? But when sometimes He gives tardily, He commends the gift, He does not deny it. The longer something is desired the sweeter the gain of it. That which is given swiftly is cheapened. Ask, seek, persist. Grow in asking and seeking that you might gain. God has care for you because He will not give quickly, so that even you may learn to desire great things greatly. Whence it is necessary to pray, and never stop. 2 If therefore, my brothers, God has made us His beggars, in warning us and exhorting us and commanding us that we should ask and seek and knock, let us look to those who ask from us. We ask. From whom do we ask? Who are we that ask? What do we ask for? From whom, or who does, of what do we ask for? We ask from God, we who are wicked ask, we ask for righteousness by which we may become good. Therefore we seek this that we may gain eternity, by which when we are satisfied, we shall need nothing more. But that we be satisfied we hunger and we thirst, in hunger and in thirst we ask, we seek, we knock. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 3 Why blessed? They hunger and they thirst and they are blessed? Is poverty sometimes blessedness? No, they are not blessed because they hunger and thirst but because they shall be satisfied. There shall be blessedness in satisfaction, not in hunger. But hunger precedes satisfaction, lest a man, because he is scornful, does not come for bread. Therefore we have spoken about the one from whom we ask, we who ask, and what we ask. But there is something asked of us. Since we are the beggars of God, as He knows His beggars, let us also know ours. But even there let us think, when something is asked of us, who it is that asks, whom they ask, what they ask. Who asks? Men. From whom do they ask? From men. Who asks. Mortals. From whom do they ask? From mortals. Who asks? Fragile creatures. Who do they ask? Fragile creatures. Who asks? Wretches. Who do they ask? Wretches. Apart from the matter of substance, they who ask are just like those whom they ask. What boldness do you have that you ask from God and you ignore your equals? 'I am not such a thing, be gone from me, that I might be what I am.' So a proud man in robes speaks to a fellow in rags. But I question the naked. I do not question you clothed, whoever you may be, but as you were born. Both are naked, both wretched, both beginning a wretched life, therefore both cry out. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Sermon 61, 'On the words of the Gospel: Ask And It Shall Be Given To You.' 1 Lk 11.5-15 2 Lk 18.1 3 Mt 5.6