Gospel Reading: Jn 16:23b-28
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
WHATEVER YOU ASK THE FATHER IN MY NAME
When the Israelites prayed to God, they would usually end their prayer with a doxology, a petition that God’s name be glorified. Christians pray to the same God, but now invoked as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The petition is then made in Jesus’ name – “through Christ our Lord.” This is in response to Jesus’ command in the Gospel: “Ask the Father in my name” (v 23b).
To petition God in Jesus’ name is not a sine qua non condition for God to answer prayers. Jesus declares that the Father himself loves the disciples as his children, and more than human fathers, God gives good things to his children. But John emphasizes the intimate union between Jesus and the Father, and the Father relates to human beings, his children, always through his Beloved Son. Thus, believers, who are “children in the Son,” address themselves to the Father in Jesus’ name – through him, with him, and in him.
Do you pray to God directly?
As a community or group, do you end your prayer with “We ask this through Christ our Lord”?
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord,” ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.