Ask, and you will receiveˇK These words can sound like mere wishful thinking for those of us who have experienced disappointment and heartbreak of one kind or another, those who have indeed asked, sought, knocked, but received no answer.

Can we find the courage to ask again? It will, undeniably, be difficult. But perhaps we can be helped by considering both how we ask and how God answers. Notice how Esther asks in the first reading. Notice how serious her situation is: she is in mortal peril. But notice also how she trusts with her whole heart in God alone, how she hopes in God with a hope that is against all hope. She puts all her eggs in one single divine basket. And we know the end of the story. The Lord answers her and she and her people are saved before the jaws of death can close upon them.

But must we not also remember the experience of our Lord Jesus himself, as he hung upon the cross? Should we not also recall how he seemed all but abandoned by his own heavenly Father? Yet he was heard, if only beyond the tomb and not before. Dare we place all our eggs in the basket of the God who has the power and compassion to answer us in this way?