“The Spirit who moved over the waters at the first creation, moved over Mary to begin the second.”
– Didymus the Seer
Gospel Reading for the day:
John 16:23-28
In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
“I have said this to you in figures; the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in figures but tell you plainly of the Father. In that day you will ask in my name; and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from the Father. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
What do the Fathers say?
St John CHRYSOSTOM. He says, And on that day, i. e. when I shall have risen again, you shall ask Me nothing, i. e. not say to Me, Show us the Father, and, Where are You going? since you will know this by the teaching of the Holy Spirit: or,
Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Wherein He shows His power; that neither seen, or asked, but named only to the Father, He will do miracles. Do not think then, He says, that because in the future I shall not be with you, that you are therefore forsaken: for My name will be a still greater protection to you than My presence: Hitherto you have asked nothing in My Name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.
St THEOPHYLACT. For when your prayers shall be fully answered, then will your gladness be greatest.
He still cheers them with the promise that help will be given to them from above in their temptations and you will be so in favour with the Father, that you will no longer need my intervention: And I do not say to you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you. But so that they might not start back from our Lord, as though they were no longer in need of Him, He adds, Because you have loved Me: as if to say, The Father loves you, because you have loved Me; when therefore you fall from My love, you will straightaway fall from the Fathers love.
St AUGUSTINE. Does He love us because we love Him; or rather do we not love Him, because He loved us?
This is what the Evangelist, John, says, Let us love God, because God first loved us.
The Father loves us, because we love the Son, He loves what He has made; but He would not make in us what He loved, except He loved us in the first place. He came from the Father, because He is of the Father; He came into the world, because He showed Himself in the body to the world. He left the world by His departure in the body, and went to the Father by the ascension of His humanity,
He went forth from the Father and came into the world, He did so in such a way as not to leave the Father.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, we read, was asked questions, and petitioned after His resurrection: when about to ascend to Heaven He was asked by His disciples when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. I think then that when He says, In that day you shall ask Me nothing, He refers not to the time of His resurrection, but to that time when we shall see Him as He is: which vision is not of this present life, but of the life everlasting, when we shall ask for nothing, ask no questions, because there will remain nothing to be desired, nothing to be learnt.
St HILARY. Perfect faith in the Son, which believes and loves what has come forth from God, and deserves to be heard and loved for its own sake, this faith confessing the Son of God, born from Him, and sent by Him, does not need an intercessor with the Father:
St ALCUIN. This is His meaning then: In the world to come, you shall ask Me nothing: but in the mean time while you are travelling on this wearisome road, ask what you want of the Father, and He will give it you: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons