Asking

Our Lord is the Bridegroom and His Church is His bride: so what does he tell us? He implores us to ask for things! Ask and it shall be given you (Matt 7:7), whatever you ask for in prayer you will receive (Matt 21:22), if you ask anything in my name I will do it (John 14:14), ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full (John 16:24). There are countless other verses in the New Testament which emphasize the necessity of asking, asking with faith and trust in our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. We can take this back to the natural level and see how in the feminine vocation, asking is of fundamental importance. Ask and you shall receive. The keynote of woman is her receptivity (cf. The Privilege of Being a Woman, Alice von Hildebrand), and how can we receive if we never ask? This can become a problem not only in our relationship with God, but even more so in our relationships with men. How fatal to expect that a man know what we need before we ask him! On the other hand, how liberating to ask and trust in a loving response. C.S. Lewis, in his concluding chapter of The Four Loves, discusses an often-overlooked aspect of charity: the transformation and supernaturalization of our need-love for others. Charity is not just giving, but also, in a mysterious way, receiving. To ask someone for something may actually be an act of love for that person. In the relationships between men and women, for the woman to request is a golden opportunity for the man to sacrifice and give.