Homily for 3 May 2017

3 May 2017

“If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it,” says the Lord. That’s a pretty bold promise Jesus makes. And it sounds too good to be true: If we ask anything of Jesus, he’ll do it. Of course, it doesn’t ring true to us.  I mean, we ask Jesus all the time to help us with this or that—and nothing happens. It’s a bold promise Jesus makes, and perhaps a dangerous one, too, because his reputation, his trustworthiness is on the line.

But, of course, the promise Jesus gives here is very trustworthy. “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” And we focus on the word “anything,” but really, the important phrase here is “in my name.”  If we ask anything of Jesus—“in his name”—he’ll do it.  And what he means here is that if we ask things of Jesus, he’ll do it—as long as it’s in line with the will of God.

And we can think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he says, “Father, I would rather not go through this suffering of the Cross, but let your will be done, not mine.” Jesus himself practices what he preaches.

The Lord wants us to rely on him, and the Father and the Holy Spirit.  He wants us to turn to him for help. We just have to be sure that whatever we ask of him, we close our prayer with “thy will be done.” In our ultimate prayer is that God’s will be done, we’ll never be disappointed.