Jn 16:20-23
Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Ask In Jesus’ Name
“Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Such words of promise and hope! The words beg the question, how do I ask in Jesus’ name?
I have known many people who have sacrificed much for greater goods- graduate students and medical students, for example, who did not participate in family events for years because of demanding studies and training. A refugee family from Afghanistan recently arrived in the U.S. after social upheaval and war uprooted them from everything they knew culturally, socially, religiously. They risked much to survive and possibly thrive in a less hostile environment. We weep and mourn when our sacrifices involve pain and loss. The vision and promise of something greater drive us. To ask in Jesus’s name is to share the vision and promise as he sees it and to accompany him in the sacrifices he makes for the greater good.
—Joseph Lagan is the director of the Ignatian Spirituality Program of Denver.
Prayer
Lord, I ask for the grace to see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and touch with your touch this day. Amen.
—Joseph Lagan