Healing Service - Nov. 2025

Homily for Healing Service, November 2025
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” — [[Matthew 7 7-8]]

We hear these words from Jesus, and we might rush to lump them all together: “ask, seek, knock,” as if they are simply different parts for the same action. But St. Augustine suggests a progression in these commands:

"The asking refers to the obtaining by request soundness and strength of mind, so that we may be able to discharge those duties which are commanded; the seeking, on the other hand, refers to the finding of the truth. For inasmuch as the blessed life is summed up in action and knowledge, action wishes for itself a supply of strength, contemplation desiderates that matters should be made clear: of these therefore the first is to be asked, the second is to be sought; so that the one may be given, the other found."

This gives us a pattern for our own journey, especially when we come before God in search of healing.

First, we are to Ask. This is where we begin, in raw and honest prayer. We bring our pain, our fear, our sickness, our brokenness, and our confusion, and we lay it before God. “Lord, I am afraid.” “Heal my body.” “Comfort my heart.” This is the foundation, the cry that turns toward God in trust. It is the first, movement of faith.

The, Augustine says then we must Seek. If asking opens the conversation; seeking deepens it. What does it mean to seek healing? It is to actively search for God’s truth in the midst of our suffering. We seek in Scripture, listening for a word of comfort or strength. We seek in the wisdom of doctors, counselors, or other professionals. We seek by reflecting on what God might be teaching us in this moment–perhaps a deeper compassion or a necessary patience. We are seeking the truth of who God is, even when our circumstances are painful.

And then, having asked in prayer and sought the truth, we are prepared to Knock. Finding God’s truth through our seeking shows us the door. And what is that door? It is the entrance into a deeper, more resilient life in Christ, a life shaped not by the absence of suffering, but by the sure and certain hope of God’s presence within it. To knock is to ask for entrance into that peace which passes all understanding. It is to actively pursue life trusting that the door to God’s kingdom is opened to us now, even in our brokenness.

Amen.