PRAYING IN JESUS’ NAME IS GOD’S WILL

Introduction
When we pray, what do we want God to do? Do we want to transform God with our prayers and bend him to do our own will, or do we seek his will? Do we have time in the dialogue of prayer to listen to him? Do we realize that he speaks to us in his word, in Christ, in the Gospel? And that he speaks to us in our personal history, the events of life, in people around us? If we pray in the name of Christ, it should be with Christ’s attitude of openness to God and his will.

1 Reading ACTS 18:23-28
After staying in Antioch some time,
Paul left and travelled 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 47:2-3, 8-9, 10
R. (8a) God is king of all the earth.
or:
R. 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.

For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R.

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.

Alleluia John 16:28
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I came from the Father and have come into the world;
now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

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.”

Commentary:
“Ask and receive.” Can anyone conceive of a simpler formula to make our earthly life easier and more joyful? I doubt it. But perhaps the formula is so simple that we do not take it seriously—like Naaman, the Syrian, who angrily dismissed the prophet Elisha’s simple formula for the cure of his leprosy: take a bath in the river Jordan (2 Kgs 5). Jesus repeatedly tells us in the gospels that if we ask, we will receive. When we ask in Jesus’s name, it is not even required that Jesus forward the prayer on our behalf to God the Father; rather, the Father will reward us directly and instantly. Hence, why not ask so that we receive, and our joy is made full? Today, make a list of the most authentic needs of your heart and go shopping with the Lord at his store of blessings.

Blessing
We are sure that God loves us and that he will give us anything good we need and ask in the name of Jesus. May God give you that certainty of faith and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!