Sermon for the 5thSunday after Easter, May 9th, 2021
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
On this Sunday, and on the following Rogation days – the three days before Our Lord’s Ascension – Holy Church teaches us to pray. Together with the Gospel of the Rogation Mass, we learn that only prayer in the name of Jesus Christ is acceptable and efficient. Here it is particularly about the demanding purpose of prayers; the other ends of prayer being adoration, thanksgiving and atonement for sins.
Much of what Our Lord was saying in his last discourse to the Apostles – Jn ch.14-17 – remained dark for the Apostles until after his Resurrection and the sending of the Holy Ghost. This clearly shows that they have then been privileged with such extraordinary graces, in view of being destined to lay the foundations of the Church; “in medio Ecclesiae… in the midst of the Church” (Sir 15:5), as we pray on the feasts of Holy Doctors.
As a consequence of this, and of the theological explanations which Our Lord gives in today’s Gospel, only those who believe in Our Lord, true God and true man, can ask him with the assurance of being heard: “These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh, when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in my name; and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” (Jn 16:25-27) Only those who are truly incorporated into Christ’s mystical body, the Church, through the true Faith and Baptism, have a right to be heard. Christ explains in the sermon on the mount: “Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.“ (Mt 7:20-23) Thus not any kind of faith in Our Lord saves the souls; but only the true Faith which bears fruits of justice through effective Charity.
This again is confirmed by the next verse in today’s Gospel (v. 28): “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father.” To this we have to add the many statements in which Our Lord professes his union of nature with the Father (Jn 10:30; 17:11), and the Holy Ghost (Mt 28:19). Truth and Charity are the very bonds defining and uniting the three Divine Persons. Similarly there can be no real unity among humans if they do not care about the truth and the works of charity. The “moderns” who “believe in something” or that “there is someone up there”; the Protestants who invoke Christ while refusing to know his true nature and constitution, and being part of the one true Church – they all are far off the way to Heaven!
This verse also contains the entire story of the Redemption: the divine will to save the souls of good will by sending His own Son. It is so simple and clear that the Apostles are enlightened by a rayon of divine light and acknowledge their master’s divinity: “His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.” (v. 29-30)
In the light of this sublime doctrine we can better understand the first verses of today’s Gospel: “Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.” (v. 23-24) The last words are further explained by Our Lord’s words which we read in the Gospel of the Rogation Mass:
“And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him. And he from within should answer, and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?” (Lk 11:5-13)
Let us pray, then, according to Our Lord’s instructions and wishes.
Especially all those who are awaiting their Confirmation here – the sending of “the good Spirit”! – should pray very fervently these days. There is a chance that Bishop Stuyver will come in June to administer this Sacrament, something we have had to put off last September! Under the present circumstances we can take few things for granted. Therefore we must pray and weep and implore God’s help and mercy all the more, being certain of the good outcome according to God’s sovereign will!
Do not forget that our prayers will be infinitely more pleasing to God, and therefore efficient, if we address them to Him not only through Our Lord, but to Our Lord through His Blessed Mother, the Queen of May, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Refuge of Sinners...
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski
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