NOTES for Mat 7:11-12

Christ invites us to ask the Heavenly Father for everything we need. This alone does not immediately fit in one's head: can this really be, and can we trouble Him about absolutely anything? But still more striking is who Christ invites to ask: us, the very people whom He Himself called evil. Yet the Lord asks us to reveal the potential for mercy living in us despite all our hardness because He Himself loves us. And if the generosity of the Heavenly Father is contrasted with our human limitation, then we who ask and those who ask from us find ourselves in the same position.

It would seem not hard to see oneself in another person's place, but even this often exceeds us. Meanwhile it has long been noted that Christ formulates the well-known moral principle called the "golden rule" somewhat differently from those before Him. If many ancient sages taught not to do to another what one does not want for oneself, Christ proposes that we behave more actively and do for our neighbor what we want for ourselves.

And this means that the Gospel proposes that we not limit ourselves to doing no evil with folded hands; it is a call to activity.