20 May 2023

Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter

“For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God” (John 16:27). This word of Jesus from today’s Gospel strikes at the heart of the mystery we are again and again invited to contemplate and to enter: the mystery of being sons and daughters of the Father in Christ, through the Spirit’s power. We are loved by the Father as his very own children, and if we know this, then this love is for us the source of infinite confidence, since no one can take us out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28). So Jesus says to the disciples and to us, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John 16:23). And furthermore, Jesus even tells us that he does not need to ask the Father on our behalf; we simply need to ask in his name (John 16:26).

Today, let us ask the Spirit to deepen our awareness of being children of the Father in his Son, Jesus Christ. And whatever need we find ourselves in, let us confidently approach the Father’s throne of grace (cf. Heb 4:15), asking with all the boldness of a child secure in its Father’s infinite love.