Reasons For Refusal

Omnis enim qui petit, accipit: et qui quaerit, invenit: et pulsanti aperietur. Unde cuicunque non datur quod petit, absque dubio non recte petit, neque quaerit, neque recte pulsat ante januam pietatis. Omnia enim quaecunque petimus aut quaerimus, et ad quod pulsamus, sicut dixi, non nisi unum, et propter unum esse debet, quia non nisi unum est necessarium. Hinc quoque David ait: Unam petii a Domino, hanc requiram, ut inhabitem in domo Domini omnibus diebus vitae meae. Alioquin quomodo negabit petentibus se, qui primum se non petentibus sponte obtulit? Aut quomodo quaerentes eum non invenient, qui etiam non quaerentibus se ut invenirent praestitit? Vel quomodo pulsantibus non aperiet ad se, qui quotidie clamat nobis: Ecce sto ad ostium et pulso; utique de ostio nostri pectoris dicens: Si quis aperuerit , introibo ad eum, et caenobo cum illo? Patet igitur quoties non accipimus quod non recete petimus, et cum non invenimus quod non bene quaesivimus, et dum pulsantibus non aperitur: quia non recte pulsamus Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber IV, Caput VII Source: Migne PL 120.319c-d

Everyone who asks shall receive, and he who seeks shall find, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. 1 So to whom what is asked is not given, then without doubt he does not ask correctly, nor does he seek or knock before the door of piety rightly. For whatever we ask for, or seek, and for what we knock, as said, should be nothing but one thing and on account of one thing, because only one thing is necessary. 2 Hence David also says in the Psalm, 'I asked for one thing from the Lord, this I will seek, that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.' 3 Besides, how shall He refuse Himself to those who ask, He who first of His own will gave Himself for those who did not seek Him? Or how shall those who seek Him not find Him who even to those who do not seek Him set himself forth so that they might find Him? Or how shall He not open Himself to those who knock, who cries out every day, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock,' so that standing at the door of our hearts, He says, 'If someone shall open, I shall enter into him, and I shall feast with him?' 4 It it obvious, then, that we do not receive because do not ask rightly, and when we do not find it is because we have not sought rightly, and while we knock and it is not opened, it is because we do not knock correctly. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 4, Chapter 7 1 Mt 7.8 2 Lk 10.42 3 Ps 26.4 4 Rev 3.20