Saturday in the Sixth Week of Easter
DAILY GOSPEL COMMENTARY:
“WHATEVER YOU ASK THE FATHER IN MY NAME HE WILL GIVE YOU”
(Jn 16:23b-28).
READING I
Acts 18:23–28
After staying in Antioch some time, Paul left and traveled in orderly sequence through the Galatian country and Phrygia, bringing strength to all the disciples.
A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus. He was an authority on the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and, with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. After his arrival he gave great assistance to those who had come to believe through grace. He vigorously refuted the Jews in public, establishing from the Scriptures that the Christ is Jesus.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. God is king of all the earth.
Or: Alleluia.
All you peoples, clap your hands;
shout to God with cries of gladness.
For the Lord, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God is king of all the earth.
Or: Alleluia.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God is king of all the earth.
Or: Alleluia.
The princes of the peoples are gathered together
with the people of the God of Abraham.
For God’s are the guardians of the earth;
he is supreme.
R. God is king of all the earth.
Or: Alleluia.
ALLELUIA
I went from the Father and came into the world; and now I leave the world to return to the Father.
GOSPEL
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.”
GOSPEL COMMENTARY from the Navarre Bible, Gospel of St. John (with permission)
- The Apostles’ power derives from Christ glorified. Christ our Lord says as much: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it”. “It is not that he who believes in me will be greater than me, but only that I shall then do greater works than now; greater, by him who believes in me, than I now do by myself without him” (St Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 72, 1).
- Jesus Christ is our intercessor in heaven; therefore, he promises us that everything we ask for in his name, he will do.
- Asking in his name (cf. 15:7, 16; 16:23-24) means appealing to the power of the risen Christ, believing that he is all-powerful and merciful because he is true God;
- and it also means asking for what is conducive to our salvation, for Jesus is our Saviour.
- Thus, by “whatever you ask” we must understand what is for the good of the asker.
- When our Lord does not give what we ask for, the reason is that it would not make for our salvation.
- In this way we can see that he is our Saviour both when he refuses us what we ask and when he grants it.
- 25-30 As can be seen also from other passages in the Gospels, Jesus spent time explaining his doctrine in more detail to his Apostles than to the crowd (cf. Mk 4:10-12 and par.) — to train them for their mission of preaching the Gospel to the whole world (cf. Mt 28:18-20).
- However, our Lord also used metaphors or parables when imparting instruction to the Apostles, and he does so in this discourse of the Last Supper — the vine, the woman giving birth, etc.: he stimulates their curiosity and they, because they do not understand, ask him questions (cf. vv. 17-18).
- Jesus now tells them that the time is coming when he will speak to them in a completely clear way so that they will know exactly what he means. This he will do after the Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:3).
- But even now, since he knows their thoughts, he is making it ever plainer to them that he is God, for only God can know what is happening inside someone (cf. 2:25). Verse 28, “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father” summarizes the mystery of Christ’s Person (cf. Jn 1:14; 20:31).
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