Gospel John 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.”
Reflection This proclamation on the part of Jesus to his disciples is very profound. There must have been many times when the disciples asked Jesus, please pray to God for us. And when he says, Here, I no longer am going to ask the father for you. You could ask the father directly. And the image is so clear that there has been a bonding with human race and God the Father that has been revealed in the ministry of Jesus.
No one ever dreamt that the father loves us as much as Jesus proved that he loved us through giving us his only begotten son, the highest form of love. So we need to take from this passage, and from everything that Jesus is really working on, is repairing and deepening and enriching our relationship with God who lives in our hearts,
resonates his love. We no longer have to ask someone else to ask God for us. We talk directly to him.
Closing Prayer Father, it's hard for us to imagine that what you're really, really asking of us is that we allow you to love us. Meaning, we open our heart, or mind, our will to the awesome belief that you are deeply, deeply in love with us and want nothing, nothing more than us to be ultimately with you forever. Keep us in touch with this great gift. and we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.