“IN HIS + NAME”
Saint John 16: 23-30
Rogate: 21 May Anno Domini 2017
Father Jay Watson SSP
“Christ Who hath redeemed us with His Blood; is risen and hath appeared unto us. Hallelujah!”
Jesus spoke to the “12” and said “in that day ye shall me nothing.” When He spoke to the “12” He was also speaking to the reconstituted “sons of Jacob”…the sons of Israel…the Church Catholic…you! Hitherto when Andrew or Thomas had a question for their Rabbi they would walk up to Him and speak directly face to face. “In that day” is a reference by The Christ to the time when His “face” will no longer be seen with the human eye. Easter season ends with The Ascension of our Lord to the Right Hand of Majesty. Asking Jesus things, eyeball to eyeball and mouth to mouth ends and praying to Jesus begins. Visual communion ends and Sacramental communion begins. Doing things for the Master as good as that is, and necessary as it is, is infinitely surpassed by receiving things from The God/Man. The greatest worship is to receive His gifts of Grace in the Blessed Sacraments—the “mysteries.”
Christ went on: “whatsoever ye shall ask The Father in My Name, He will give it you.”
If The Lord is The Way, The Life, and The Truth, then why did the “12,” who presumably prayed the Our Father, the Psalter, and their own intercessory prayers fervently during their lives, not receive “whatsoever?” They were constrained by The Holy Ghost to walk The Way of suffering, persecution; the shadow of the Cross marked their bodies unto their own bloody martyrdoms. Their lives were cut short. And you then whine and complain that God doesn’t always answer your prayers? You’ve prayed for the healing of your loved ones and yourselves. You’ve prayed for many earthly things that you are 100% convinced are absolutely necessary to your health, charitable concerns, necessity, well-being, and very life itself, and you’ve not been given it. You ask and you ask and you are convinced that “your joy” is not “full;” may not even be there most of the time. His word “whatsoever” is NORMED by His words “in MY + NAME” and not vice versa.
One of the things that Christ talked most about, as it is recorded in the four Gospels, is Satan, death, and hell—the “last things.” It is the “or” to the “either” of being with Him in The Kingdom of Righteousness. There is no middle ground—no nothingness or neutral annihilation. If one is not Christian than one is damned to hellfire. Think of that. Do you? Does your old Adam, masquerading as the psychological construct “cognitive dissonance” mask this truth from you all the time? Do you view your non-Christian friends (and by that I mean the people who don’t come to His Altar, Pulpit and Font every Lord’s Day to receive Him and His gifts) as…nice people…pretty good people…friendly, helpful, loyal, hard-working, relatives, fellow citizens, blah blah blah…without ever facing the reality that they are going to hell unless they repent and believe? This is not my opinion but John The Baptist’s, The Holy Spirit’s, and Christ Jesus Himself—God!
So, while you may pray for your Husband’s cure from congenital heart-failure, your unborn child’s safety from birth defects, your job, your children, and your happy family…you may very well end up seeing with the “eyes” of your head, a dead spouse, a Downs Syndrome daughter, an unemployment office, a pagan prodigal, and a dysfunctional dinner table. Welcome to the life of the Blessed Apostle Saint Paul; welcome to the life of a Christian. Praise God that one is counted worthy to suffer In + Christ!
Christ did speak in parables. He used the coverings of symbols, metaphors, and similes so as to emphasize His prophecies through Esaias…that seeing one will not see and that hearing one will not hear; i.e. faith comes not by YOUR intelligence, wisdom, or abilities to decipher the Kingdom’s Mysteries, but by His Grace—His Grace given out in His word, and in His Body given and in His Blood shed.
His + Name is not coach, enabler, “best-Bud,” motivator, wealth & health guru, wise-man, non-judgmental inclusivist, or even King (though He is King). His + Name is Jesus. It means Savior. We bow our heads and genuflect not to a wise yogi or proverb spouting philanthropist, but to the God/Man SAVIOR. He saves you from your sins. He forgives your sins by keeping your duties, doing what work you are commanded to do. He forgives your sins by suffering and dying for your backstabbing, murderous, and cowardly treason.
Pray in His Name: SAVIOR. Pray, ask, wrestle with, demand, hold God to His Word by holding God to His + Name: SAVIOR. Pray for you own faith and strength and endurance. Pray for the Holy Spirit guided movement of your daily good works: in loving your neighbor as yourself, in putting others first, in seeing the Face of Jesus in your brothers and sisters of The Church Catholic—for they are the very “ Body of Christ.” Pray for the salvation of the World and the salvation of the individuals that you know and come into contact with. Be here every Mass, not every third Sunday and not every other Sunday, but every Mass. This is not Law this is the Gospel of Salvation. The Israelites who were with Jesus—JOSHUA only every so often were not saved, that is, not delivered when he led them across the Jordan to Canaan…if they were not with him…if they absented themselves from Grace, deliverance, salvation: JESUS. Do what you can to urge, cajole, and persuasively force others to be here with you.
As Eve came forth from Adam’s side, so too does the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church come forth from The Savior’s side. This is The Bride, the Church, you, in the flowing of Jesus’ Water and Blood—Baptism and Eucharist.
“Christ Who hath redeemed us with His Blood; is risen and hath appeared unto us. Hallelujah!”
He has gone to The Father that He might be with you here right now in These Words and in This Sacrament… “that your joy may be full.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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