Saturday in the Sixth Week of Easter

 Saturday in the Sixth Week of Easter, May 28, 2022

John 16, 23-28

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.”

We pray for the souls of the children who were killed in the massacre in Texas and we pray for the recovery of the survivors.  Many people are calling for laws to restrict the ownership and use of firearms, and it does seem that greater restrictions should be enacted to prevent, as much as possible, the immature, the mentally ill, and convicted felons from getting hold of them.  The problem, however, is much the same as in the matter of abortion.  We can pass all the laws we want, but if we do not change hearts, people will simply break the laws.  Perhaps we will learn more about the killer and his family (where is the father?) so that we can form a better idea of why this young man killed these children.  I wonder if the root cause of the anger or frustration that plays such a large part in this killing and so many like it has to do with the attitude parents display towards children these days, an attitude which also sees abortion as a possibility during pregnancy.  It is the exaltation of the individual and a belief in personal “autonomy” which reduces other people — parents, children, siblings, spouses, friends, anyone — to obstacles to success or enjoyment of life — or, at best, as facilitators of these things.  Vices like pornography and probably addictions to video games amplify this.  And when the person who believes himself autonomous becomes frustrated, he acts without restraint.  After all, these are not real people.  They are my obstacles or they represent my obstacles.  That social media allows people to rage anonymously — and so, safely, without repercussions or correction — does not help, either.  We learn we do not have to hold back, and that it is good to “let it all out”.  It makes us feel better.  The only way out from this mindset is the discovery by each person of the torrential love of the Lord Jesus for that person.  I wrote a few weeks ago of a man I went to see in the hospital who wanted to go to confession.  The night before, he had experienced this love of Jesus for him.  It overwhelmed him.  He had lived a godless life for many years but now wanted to return to Christ with all his heart.  Somewhere, someone was praying for that man.  You and I need to pray long and hard for the conversion of souls, if only for the survival of our society.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”  St. John’s account of the Last Supper extends through four chapters of his Gospel, about a fifth of it.  We can learn from this the importance that John attached to the events and discourse that this section contains.  The first verse of this reading should be read in context, especially coming as it does at the end of the discourse.  The Lord has spoken to the Apostles about his going forth from this world and their remaining in it under the care of the Holy Spirit, whom he will send them.  They are to bear fruit, the fruit of faith.  To accomplish this, the Lord Jesus tells them to ask the Father for whatever they need and to ask for it in his name.  This is fitting, for they are to continue the work initiated by the Lord Jesus in converting the world.  “Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”  Asking for what they need in the name of Jesus constitutes a new commandment for them, or, to look at it another way, a new and certain way of obtaining what they need to spread the Gospel.  They will have joy in their labor for Jesus despite the hardships they will endure, and it will be complete in heaven.  As St. Paul wrote to the Philippians after his release from prison, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 17).  

“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.”  That is, I have taught you in figures and parables about the Father but soon you will see him face to face in heaven.  We need to remind ourselves all the time that in this world “we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13, 12).  The eyes of our hearts are fogged with impurities and sin and so we cannot see aright.  The time will come when, purged and cleansed, they will see all things as they are, and so, pure of heart, we will see God.  But for the present we can hardly even see ourselves.  “On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.”  There will no longer be anything to pray for when the just are all in heaven after the final judgment.  “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.”  The Father’s love does not depend on any condition, even that of believing in his Son, but it is experienced by and effective within a person when that person does believe.  

“I came from the Father and have come into the world.  Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”  The Lord Jesus has announced this to the Apostles several times within his Last Supper Discourse so that it is a refrain.  We must try to think like the Apostles: You have worked so hard, performed so many miracles, faced down those who oppose you, and entered Jerusalem in triumph, and you are going to leave now?  What about the kingdom you preached about?  What about overthrowing Roman rule?  What about us?  Only after the Resurrection did he teach them that he had come to die for our sins.  This was part of the “too much to bear now” of which he had spoken earlier (cf. John 16, 12).