Last week, Father Jeremy and I were sitting at the dining room table when Father Fred entered the room. We were talking about this whole Pokémon craze that is going on with all the kids. We are trying to figure it out. I think Father Fred may have been the most clueless of all three of us. I decided to download it on my phone just to see what it was all about. I started playing the game in the Rectory.
We are sitting at the dining room table. I looked across from me and there was a Pokémon right there at the dining room table in the Rectory. Father Fred said, “What do you mean there’s a Pokémon here?” And I said, “No, it is right over there.” He said, “I can’t see it.” I had to explain this whole augmented reality and show him my phone. Then we realized St. Gabriel’s Church is a Pokestop! Now that means that kids are coming from all over to the church to come and recharge their Pokémon game. So, kids, don’t do it now, but after Mass! It is a Pokestop and you can actually walk around to the front of the church and go outside and recharge. We have just been having fun with this and laughing about this. Maybe you have seen kids walking around and doing this.
It has me thinking about the Gospel. The whole notion of seeking and finding. I tried to play this game for a while. The idea is that you just go out; you don’ t know where the Pokémon are, you just go out, and you start walking. Then all of a sudden they appear, and then you collect these Pokémon from all over.
“Seek and you shall find.” The reality, with this game, the kids are doing it. They know that if they go out there and play they are going to find one. It gives them the incentive to do it. Well, Jesus gives us this three-part thing. And these are the three things I will talk about in the Homily: Ask, seek, and knock. He tells us that if we ask, we will be granted whatever we ask for. That is pretty awesome. If we ask God anything, He is going to give it to us. The second is seek. If we seek Him, we will find Him. And third, if we knock on God’s door, He will open the door.
First of all, ask. I read a story in a newspaper about a boy who has Down Syndrome. The mother was actually saying this boy is normally shy. He has a difficult time with social ability and talking to other kids. But this Pokémon game has him going out into the neighborhood and playing with the neighborhood kids. He is going up to the neighborhood kids and he is asking them how to play, “How do I do this?” “How do I go find the battle?” “How do I find this person?” And before you know it this boy is not only asking, but the neighborhood kids are taking him in and they are telling him and they are taking him to the different stops. The mother said it has been a wonderful thing because for the first time in this boy’s life there has been a response to him. Kids are finally wanting to play with him.
I think the whole notion is it is sometimes hard for us to ask for help. We all know, guys, it is hard for us to ask for directions, right? We do not want to ask for help, do we? It is a difficult thing, for some reason, to ask for help. Sometimes I think that translates to God. Sometimes we stop asking. I think sometimes we stop asking God for help. Maybe it is because God has not answered one of our prayers. Sometimes we feel like God does not answer our prayers. But we know God — and Jesus said in the Gospel today, “Ask and you shall receive.” He was telling us, ask and you shall receive. God is giving you whatever you ask for. But why do we hesitate? Why do we stop asking? I think sometimes we are afraid that God won’t answer our prayer. Or we think about times that God might not have answered our prayers. We know that song by Garth Brooks, “Unanswered Prayers,” right? The ones He did not answer. There is a good reason for that.
But the reality is we can all probably think about times in our lives where we asked God for something and we got it. He gave it to us. Miraculous things sometimes. I know what has happened in my life, and I am sure it has probably happened in your life. But sometimes we just stop asking. That is what I invite you to think about today. If there is anything in your heart that you need to ask God for, ask Him for it. And there is no more powerful place to do it than right here when we celebrate the Eucharist. This is the ultimate, most powerful prayer that we have. Ask Him for whatever you need and it shall be granted.
The second is “Seek and you shall find.” We know the kids are running all over and they are seeking. I read another article about people who wear Fitbits. You know how Fitbits track your steps every day. Their goal is to get ten thousand steps a day. Well, they found that people that play Pokémon get an average of five thousand more steps every day. These kids are walking, like, five miles every day just to find these Pokémon. It is a relentless search. And you can find them anywhere. It was hilarious! I don’t know how one got in the Rectory, but it was there. And they are all over. If you walk around — I even walked around the neighborhoods here — and the church, and you just find them. They pop up. The reality, too, is that with our seeking we will find. And the same is true with God. God does pop up all over in our lives if we are seeking Him. If we are seeking Him at work. If we are seeking Him at school. If we are seeking Him when we leave church today and go to whatever you are going to do (go to breakfast, or go to your families’ or do some yard work, whatever you are doing, if you are seeking God, you will find Him.) Jesus promises that. “Seek and you will find.”
Even more than this Pokémon craze, and sometimes I think the same thing with seeking, sometimes we get tired of it. We stop doing it. This Pokémon thing might become a fad after a while. The kids might get tired of it and then there will be something else, or maybe it will go on forever. But faith is not a fad. Seeking should never be a passing thing for us. We should always be seeking the Lord in our lives. And if we do seek Him, we will find Him. That means that your work doesn’t have to be a place of misery anymore. Your home life doesn’t have to be a place of misery anymore. God is everywhere, and all we have to do is seek Him and we will find Him.
And the third and final one is “Knock and the door shall be opened.” I have been reading these stories of kids that are actually going up to people’s homes and they are knocking on the door and saying, “Hey, there’s a Pokémon here. Can I come and look for him?” Of course, the old people are like, “What are you talking about?” and they are slamming the door. But I guarantee if the kid keeps knocking every day with their nice smile on their face, they might let them go in their backyard and find the Pokémon they are looking for.
The same is true for us and God. There is a call for persistence. It is not just a asking once or a seeking once. We have to constantly and persistently keep knocking at the door, just like the Gospel, the friend. If he doesn’t get out because of the friendship you have, he is going to get out because you won’t quit knocking. If we keep knocking — and this is Jesus. He’s giving us these powerful ways to pray. If we keep knocking persistently, asking God over and over and over, seeking God over and over and over, He will answer our prayers and we will find Him. Even more than all the kids are seeking for Pokémon, hopefully we are doing that for God. Hopefully, now we know that we can ask Him for anything and He will answer our prayers; if we seek Him, we will find Him; and if we knock, the door will be opened.
