Numbers 21:4-9/James 1:22-27/St John 16:23-30(31-33)
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
No one worries more for their children than mothers; fretting over sniffles and scrapes, food and toys, friends and school. Mothers are preoccupied with their children. And no one prays more for their children than Christian mothers. Anxiety, fear, nervousness, apprehension, protectiveness, even jealousy - these emotions are all well known to mothers concerning their little ones and not so little ones. It is true, no one loves you like your mom.
And it is truly good, right, and salutary, to give thanks for our mothers, especially pious, Christian mothers, who have and continue to sacrifice and give, work and pray, for their children. They, along with fathers, are to be honored, served and obeyed, loved and cherished as the good gifts of God that they are.
Having said this, it is perhaps a bit of divine irony that today our Lord Jesus speaks to us concerning the Father. And while no one may love like a mother, true love, divine love, that which is not merely emotion, but action and incarnation, such love comes from God the Father alone.
Now Father is not simply a title. Nor does it merely designate the maleness of God. But it indicates a relationship. Father necessarily indicates a son. A son comes from his father and alone has the privilege and prerogative of calling his father, father. Children do not call their friend’s dads, “father.” They neither have the right nor prerogative. There is but One who has the right and privilege of calling God Father; that is Jesus Christ, His only beloved Son, our Lord. The Son is the very instantiation of the Father’s love. He is the Word made flesh; Love Incarnate.
This is one reason why we cannot interchange feminine nouns or pronouns for God, as some Christian churches have done. We cannot refer to the true God as “she.” One cannot be baptized into the name of the Mother-Child-Womb. Such a designation is not only categorically wrong and false; it denies the very essence of the Blessed Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this God, the only true God is revealed in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the Son who came from the Father and who, by the Holy Spirit, makes the Father known.
These are not figures of speech. Jesus is speaking plainly. All other definitions and descriptions of the kingdom are parables and comparisons; analogies. Sonship, though, expresses the actual relationship of God the Father to our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone has the right and privilege, the prerogative, to call God “Father.”
This is what makes His exhortation to the disciples in today’s Gospel so extraordinary. He says to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Ask. Rogate. The only Sunday of the Church year where the name is taken from the Gospel lesson! Ask. But ask whom? And ask what? The Father, Jesus says. His Father and your Father! This is the privilege given you in prayer, to call upon God as Father, entreating Him as His own dear child. You are given to ask of the Lord and Creator of the universe as your own dear Father who loves you for the sake of His Son.
Now we all know we ought to pray more often, like calling our mothers frequently. The problem is that we don’t. We fail to recognize the great and divine gift given to us in prayer. Resolutions and promises don’t seem work. Frequently it takes tribulation and danger to drive us to prayer. You see this in the Old Testament reading. Israel grumbled and complained, saying, We loathe this worthless food - the heavenly manna that sustained them! So the Lord decided He would give them something to really complain about. He sent fiery serpents among them that bit them and many people died. There’s nothing like the fear of death to drive people to prayer.
In their terror, the Israelites turned to Moses and asked him to pray for them; to stand before the Lord and ask for what they didn’t deserve: for mercy. Moses does so and God answers. The snake on the pole, raised up for those who would humble themselves and see the picture of God’s coming redemption. And those who do so are miraculously healed.
Now have that image in your mind - the serpent on a stick lifted up before the eyes of the terrified and dying people - and recall again Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may have eternal life in Him. For in this way God the Father loved the world: He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:14-15; my translation).
And this is precisely what Jesus means in today’s Gospel text when He says, The hour is coming when I will tell you plainly about the Father. “The hour” refers to Jesus’ glorification of the Father’s Name. It refers to His Cross and Passion. It is in the crucifixion that the Son is lifted up from the earth. By His Cross He draws men unto Himself and into the divine life of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For in the Cross, dear children, you behold the love of the Father for you, for the sake of the loyal obedience of His only-begotten Son. Christ crucified is pure religion. He is undefiled before God the Father. And washed in the crimson flood flowing from His pierced side, upon you the Father has bestowed the right to become children of God; begotten not of flesh and blood, but from above by the Father Himself in the Son through the Spirit.
This is the gift of Holy Baptism which incorporates you into the very life of the Holy Trinity. Through the Son and in the Spirit you have a Father in heaven who loves you. And a Mother in the one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church who nourishes and cares for you in and with the very Word of Christ.
This is why St James encourages you, dear Christians, to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. You are indeed hearers, listening to, learning, digesting the Word of Christ. For faith, which cometh alone by hearing, is also strengthened and sustained by hearing.
Yet you are exhorted to be ‘doers,’ as well. Where is this better exemplified, I ask, but in prayer? For prayer begins in the hearing of the Word of the Father through His Son by the Spirit. And then, having heard, you ask; you say back to the Father in the Son by the Spirit what He has said to you, as dear children.
At times we pray together. At other times we pray alone; though we are never truly alone; even as Christ was not alone. Truly, He was abandoned by the apostles on His way to the Cross, was not entirely abandoned by the Father until the end. And even then, the Spirit who descended and remained on Him since His baptism, was with Him until Jesus handed Him over. Beloved children, Jesus hands over the Spirit to you, His Church, His family!
And this is precisely how the Church asks, how she petitions the Father, as children of the family of God marked with His holy name. For what does He say? Ask of the Father in My Name. And what is the greatest way to ask of your dear Father as His dear children, praying in and with His Son? It is the take the Lord’s Prayer not just upon your lips, but into your heart, and also your life.
For not unlike your mother who gave you life and loves you, your Father in heaven has given you eternal life with and in Him and He loves you on account of Jesus; thus He delights to hear from you in prayer. Praying to Him not just for yourself, but for all Christians; and not just for the little things for each day, but for the big stuff - asking for His holy Name to shape your life, for His kingdom to invade you, for His holy will to be done to you and by you and in all the world, for daily bread and the grace to receive it with thanksgiving, for forgiveness of sins and the grace to forgive others, for help in time of trouble and for final rescue from the Evil One. Those are some amazingly big gifts to ask of God. Who would have the nerve to ask Him for them if Jesus Himself had not taught us to pray in this way and to trust in the Father’s love?
Take heart dear ones. The Father Himself loves you for Jesus’ sake. In love He bestows upon you His Spirit in the washing of rebirth by water and Word. In love He feeds you on His Son’s Body and Blood, to strengthen and nourish you. He has commanded you to pray. And He promises to hear you. He delights to bestow His gifts on you.
And behold, the Day is coming, when you will no longer ask nor want for anything, but shall dwell eternally with the Father, who together with + the Son and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
No one worries more for their children than mothers; fretting over sniffles and scrapes, food and toys, friends and school. Mothers are preoccupied with their children. And no one prays more for their children than Christian mothers. Anxiety, fear, nervousness, apprehension, protectiveness, even jealousy - these emotions are all well known to mothers concerning their little ones and not so little ones. It is true, no one loves you like your mom.
And it is truly good, right, and salutary, to give thanks for our mothers, especially pious, Christian mothers, who have and continue to sacrifice and give, work and pray, for their children. They, along with fathers, are to be honored, served and obeyed, loved and cherished as the good gifts of God that they are.
Having said this, it is perhaps a bit of divine irony that today our Lord Jesus speaks to us concerning the Father. And while no one may love like a mother, true love, divine love, that which is not merely emotion, but action and incarnation, such love comes from God the Father alone.
Now Father is not simply a title. Nor does it merely designate the maleness of God. But it indicates a relationship. Father necessarily indicates a son. A son comes from his father and alone has the privilege and prerogative of calling his father, father. Children do not call their friend’s dads, “father.” They neither have the right nor prerogative. There is but One who has the right and privilege of calling God Father; that is Jesus Christ, His only beloved Son, our Lord. The Son is the very instantiation of the Father’s love. He is the Word made flesh; Love Incarnate.
This is one reason why we cannot interchange feminine nouns or pronouns for God, as some Christian churches have done. We cannot refer to the true God as “she.” One cannot be baptized into the name of the Mother-Child-Womb. Such a designation is not only categorically wrong and false; it denies the very essence of the Blessed Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this God, the only true God is revealed in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the Son who came from the Father and who, by the Holy Spirit, makes the Father known.
These are not figures of speech. Jesus is speaking plainly. All other definitions and descriptions of the kingdom are parables and comparisons; analogies. Sonship, though, expresses the actual relationship of God the Father to our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone has the right and privilege, the prerogative, to call God “Father.”
This is what makes His exhortation to the disciples in today’s Gospel so extraordinary. He says to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Ask. Rogate. The only Sunday of the Church year where the name is taken from the Gospel lesson! Ask. But ask whom? And ask what? The Father, Jesus says. His Father and your Father! This is the privilege given you in prayer, to call upon God as Father, entreating Him as His own dear child. You are given to ask of the Lord and Creator of the universe as your own dear Father who loves you for the sake of His Son.
Now we all know we ought to pray more often, like calling our mothers frequently. The problem is that we don’t. We fail to recognize the great and divine gift given to us in prayer. Resolutions and promises don’t seem work. Frequently it takes tribulation and danger to drive us to prayer. You see this in the Old Testament reading. Israel grumbled and complained, saying, We loathe this worthless food - the heavenly manna that sustained them! So the Lord decided He would give them something to really complain about. He sent fiery serpents among them that bit them and many people died. There’s nothing like the fear of death to drive people to prayer.
In their terror, the Israelites turned to Moses and asked him to pray for them; to stand before the Lord and ask for what they didn’t deserve: for mercy. Moses does so and God answers. The snake on the pole, raised up for those who would humble themselves and see the picture of God’s coming redemption. And those who do so are miraculously healed.
Now have that image in your mind - the serpent on a stick lifted up before the eyes of the terrified and dying people - and recall again Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may have eternal life in Him. For in this way God the Father loved the world: He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:14-15; my translation).
And this is precisely what Jesus means in today’s Gospel text when He says, The hour is coming when I will tell you plainly about the Father. “The hour” refers to Jesus’ glorification of the Father’s Name. It refers to His Cross and Passion. It is in the crucifixion that the Son is lifted up from the earth. By His Cross He draws men unto Himself and into the divine life of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For in the Cross, dear children, you behold the love of the Father for you, for the sake of the loyal obedience of His only-begotten Son. Christ crucified is pure religion. He is undefiled before God the Father. And washed in the crimson flood flowing from His pierced side, upon you the Father has bestowed the right to become children of God; begotten not of flesh and blood, but from above by the Father Himself in the Son through the Spirit.
This is the gift of Holy Baptism which incorporates you into the very life of the Holy Trinity. Through the Son and in the Spirit you have a Father in heaven who loves you. And a Mother in the one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church who nourishes and cares for you in and with the very Word of Christ.
This is why St James encourages you, dear Christians, to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. You are indeed hearers, listening to, learning, digesting the Word of Christ. For faith, which cometh alone by hearing, is also strengthened and sustained by hearing.
Yet you are exhorted to be ‘doers,’ as well. Where is this better exemplified, I ask, but in prayer? For prayer begins in the hearing of the Word of the Father through His Son by the Spirit. And then, having heard, you ask; you say back to the Father in the Son by the Spirit what He has said to you, as dear children.
At times we pray together. At other times we pray alone; though we are never truly alone; even as Christ was not alone. Truly, He was abandoned by the apostles on His way to the Cross, was not entirely abandoned by the Father until the end. And even then, the Spirit who descended and remained on Him since His baptism, was with Him until Jesus handed Him over. Beloved children, Jesus hands over the Spirit to you, His Church, His family!
And this is precisely how the Church asks, how she petitions the Father, as children of the family of God marked with His holy name. For what does He say? Ask of the Father in My Name. And what is the greatest way to ask of your dear Father as His dear children, praying in and with His Son? It is the take the Lord’s Prayer not just upon your lips, but into your heart, and also your life.
For not unlike your mother who gave you life and loves you, your Father in heaven has given you eternal life with and in Him and He loves you on account of Jesus; thus He delights to hear from you in prayer. Praying to Him not just for yourself, but for all Christians; and not just for the little things for each day, but for the big stuff - asking for His holy Name to shape your life, for His kingdom to invade you, for His holy will to be done to you and by you and in all the world, for daily bread and the grace to receive it with thanksgiving, for forgiveness of sins and the grace to forgive others, for help in time of trouble and for final rescue from the Evil One. Those are some amazingly big gifts to ask of God. Who would have the nerve to ask Him for them if Jesus Himself had not taught us to pray in this way and to trust in the Father’s love?
Take heart dear ones. The Father Himself loves you for Jesus’ sake. In love He bestows upon you His Spirit in the washing of rebirth by water and Word. In love He feeds you on His Son’s Body and Blood, to strengthen and nourish you. He has commanded you to pray. And He promises to hear you. He delights to bestow His gifts on you.
And behold, the Day is coming, when you will no longer ask nor want for anything, but shall dwell eternally with the Father, who together with + the Son and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.
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