Ask and You Shall Receive Rogation Sunday, Fifth Sunday after Easter
John 16:24 “Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full”
Preface
Blessed Jerome says that all our works must be preceded by the Lord’s Prayer and followed by thanksgiving. Therefore, in one of his letters to Paula, he says: at the beginning of any work of yours, precede it with the Lord’s Prayer and make the Sign of the holy Cross on your forehead. Likewise, just as it is not proper for a soldier to go to war without weapons, so it is not proper for a soldier of Christ to go to war against a demon unless he is fortified with these weapons, the Lord's Cross, the Lord's Prayer. And I add to this: an Angelic Salutation. And therefore first let us say an Our Father and a Hail Mary, before etc.
Sermon
“Ask,” etc. The Apostle says to the Romans that we often do not know what we ought to ask. Therefore, our advocate Jesus Christ, of whom John in his Gospel: “we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, and he is the propitiation for our sins,” this advocate invites us today to ask and promises to give us, nay swears to give us, as long as we ask in his name of Savior, what is necessary for our salvation.
Hence at the beginning of today's Gospel: “Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father for anything in my name he will give it to you,” this advocate of ours invites us to ask and teaches us how to form our request:
according to this, three things are touched with these words:
First, the Lord invites us to ask: ask;
secondly, he assures us of obtaining: and you will receive;
and thirdly, he confirms that we may rightly ask what is necessary for us to have, when he adds: that your joy may be full;
for it is said elsewhere: to every one that hath shall be given, and shall abound; and elsewhere in Luke: ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Ask with confidence and you will receive the good fortune by which the body is supported; search diligently and you will find the good of grace by which the soul is refreshed; knock incessantly and the gates of paradise will be opened for you so that your heart will be filled with joy.
1. First, then, the Lord invites us in these words to ask; in which is marked the highest courtship of him, who invites us to ask in such a courtly way.
There are four things which should very much move us to ask.
First, our poverty and our necessity.
Second, the supreme liberality of Christ.
Third, the appropriateness of the time to ask.
Fourth, the certainty of obtaining.
1.1. First, I say, what should move us to ask is our want and necessity: for we have nothing good from ourselves but from God; Whence the Apostle to the Romans: What have you, that is, good things, that you have not received? If you have received, why do you boast as if you did not receive? A sinner has nothing from himself but his own sin, and he who is in mortal sin loses all the good he has done, because, as James says: if a man has kept the whole law, but offends in one point, he has become guilty of all. Whoever offends God by transgressing his commandment will be condemned for one sin as for all; yet he will not be so punished for one sin as for many. Or: whoever stumbles in Christ, the giver of all good things, has become guilty of all, that is, he will suffer the loss of all evils. Or: he who offends in one, that is, against the precept of charity, because charity is the mother of all virtues, has become guilty against all other virtues, just as he who offends the father of the family, consequently offends also the whole family. The sinner, therefore, who lies in many mortal sins is in great misery because he does not recognize his own shortcomings. This is clearly what John says in the Apocalypse in the person of a sinner: you say I am rich and prosperous and need nothing; and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. You say I am rich in knowledge, rich in riches, I need nothing because I am healthy and strong, and you do not know that you are miserable because of the commission of sin, miserable because of the deprivation of virtues, poor because of the loss of the grace of God, blind because of your lack of knowledge, naked because of disgrace. Mortal sin does all these evils, because sin makes miserable people. Therefore, we must first be moved to ask God by our poverty and necessity, which is so great that we have nothing good from ourselves, nay, only our sins and shortcomings, and whatever good we have we have from God.
1.2. The second thing that should move us to ask is the supreme liberality of Christ. For he is the most generous distributor of all goods, which is signified by that King Ahasuerus who said to Queen Esther: What is your request, Esther? And if you ask for half of my kingdom I will give it to you. Christ does not give his friends a part of his kingdom, but his whole kingdom. Ahasuerus reigned over one hundred and twenty provinces, our Lord reigns over the whole world. Therefore, more than Ahasuerus, he is the one who gives courtly, generally, abundantly. And James touches upon these three things in his epistle, saying: He gives to all abundantly and does not reproach. He gives, he does not sell, behold courtliness; to all, behold abundance; and he does not reproach, behold liberality.
His gift is not the gift of a fool, about which Proverbs says: the gift of a fool will not be good for you. He will give to you and scold you. There is no place for that common saying: a bon demandeur, bon escondiseur [to a good petitioner a good refuter]; but rather: "to the good petitioner a liberal giver." For everything that is given is best and every gift is perfect from him. The good given is the good of fortune, as of wealth; a better gift of nature, such as physical strength or health; the best gift is grace, as virtues; it is a perfect gift of glory.
He himself gives all these gifts; He is ready to give more than to receive from us, and yet since his liberality is so great, he is asked about some who do not want to ask, when blessed Gregory says: He who offers himself to give much to those who ask, knowing that we need much, does not deny the debter. The same: let human laziness be put to shame; God prefers to give us more than to receive from us; he prefers to pity us more than to deliver us from misery.
1.3. The third thing that should move us to seek is the opportuneness of the time. He who has something to do in the court of a prince keeps the proper time when the lord is happy and the family is happy. In this way it is the right time to ask because our Lord Jesus Christ is going to the heavenly court with the representation of our flesh. Therefore, there are only days of petitions in which the Lord wants us to petition him, because when he ascends to heaven, the angelic citizens and all the lords of heaven rejoice. And therefore, since the time is just right because on Thursday Christ goes to heaven to ask the Father for us, let us just ask him and not wait with the rich man who asked slowly for a drop of water and did not get it, nor with the foolish virgins to whom the door was closed. But let us ask in the name of Christ the Savior those things which are necessary for our salvation and we shall obtain them. Hence in today's Gospel: until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive.
1.4. The fourth is to obtain with certainty, and it follows from the first three things; because whence our want and necessity is so great, his great liberality, and the opportuneness of the time to ask for it, may be considered the assurance of obtaining it. Hence John in his Gospel: this is the confidence we have in the Father, that whatever we ask, he will hear us. It is true if we ask for the necessities of our salvation.
It is true that today people are lazy to ask God and pray, so two things must move us especially to pray,
namely, the preciousness of prayer, and our necessity.
1.4.1. Its preciousness is because since these three things, fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, are the ordinances by which we have eternal life, prayer is more worthy, because almsgiving and fasting are in respect of that which is near us, prayer in respect of that which is above us; whence it is more worthy, because it goes to God as a kind of familiar person, and there it delivers an order which the flesh cannot reach.
1.4.2. The necessity of prayer is evident from the three things for which men cry: because of fire, water, and robbers. The fire of lust infests us, the water of avarice troubles us, the infernal robber with his companions disturbs us. And therefore, because we have so many opponents in the present, we must send more frequent prayers to God, that he may hear us by his grace in the present, and grant us eternal life in the future.
Evening Reflection
Ask and you shall receive. It was said in the first sermon what are the things which move us to ask, and there are four, as was said: our necessity, the liberality of Christ, the opportunness of the time, and the assurance of obtaining it.
Also, there are many obstacles because of which our request is frustrated. We can therefore put in this sermon seven obstacles because of which our request is frustrated and our prayer is not heard by God.
The first hindrance is due to the indiscretion of the petitioner;
secondly, because of the petitioner's doubt;
the third because of the impurity and unworthiness of the petitioner;
the fourth because of hypocrisy and pretense;
the fifth because of hatred and rancor;
the sixth because of hardness towards one’s neighbor;
the seventh because of contempt and disobedience of the divine law.
1. The first obstacle, therefore, is the indiscretion of the petitioner. James says about this: you ask and do not receive because you ask badly, that is, indiscriminately as the mother of John and James asked God that one of her sons should sit on the right hand and the other on the left in his kingdom. The Lord answered them: you do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? That is to suffer the same suffering that I am about to suffer. We can, they say; and the Lord: you shall drink my cup; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to give you. Gloss: without previous merits. Against those who ask for worldly honor, Augustine says thus: when asking for the things which God praises and promises to be given to those who ask, ask him with assurance, because God grants them to us; but if you ask for temporal things, ask with discretion, for whether they benefit man or hinder him, God knows better than man. Many, however, are more willing to ask God for temporal goods than for eternal ones, and all such ask indiscriminately, because it is not proper for God to give so small, as it is not proper for the king of France to give a penny. And God does not willingly listen to such people when it is not for their salvation, just as He did not listen to the apostle Paul regarding the sting of the flesh, and as He does not listen to children who pray not to be beaten in school, because it is not to their advantage.
2. The second obstacle why someone is not heard is because of his hesitation or doubt; against whom James: He demands nothing in faith, hesitating; for he who hesitates is like a wave of the sea moved by the wind; and he adds: therefore that man will not think that he receives anything from God. Gregory: He who seeks God with a doubtful feeling is made unworthy of heavenly blessing. This is what John says in his canon: whatever you ask in faith, believe that you will receive it.
3. The third obstacle is the unworthiness of the petitioner and impurity. Concerning this Isaiah: when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear you. Giving the reason: for your hands, that is your work, are full of blood, that is, of sin. And in Threnis: we have acted unjustly and provoked you to anger; therefore you are inexorable. Against such in the Psalm: if I have iniquity, that is, in my heart, the Lord will not hear. The gloss there: purity of prayer is heard by God; a pure prayer is that which is not hindered by the cares of the world, the love of the flesh. The mind is far from God when it is occupied with worldly cares and given over to the desires of the flesh. First, therefore, the mind must be cleansed from the worldly cares and desires of the flesh, so that the line of the mind can be directed to God. This is clear from a visible example: the bishop of Paris would not give the supplies of his Church to unclean and recalcitrant people and obvious usurers, so neither will the heavenly pontiff give to such people the supplies of his glory.
4. The fourth obstacle that someone's request is frustrated is because of hypocrisy and pretense. For the hypocrite cries out with the mouth and is silent in the heart, in whose person Isaiah speaks: this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Gregory here says a remarkable word in the person of the hypocrite: If we seek eternal life with our mouth and do not long for it with our heart, we actually keep silent while we cry out, the heart being shut, though the mouth be open.
5. The fifth obstacle is because of the hatred of the heart and rancor. In Ecclesiasticus: man keeps his anger against man and seeks a remedy from God. No one receives forgiveness from God unless he leaves his grudge against his brother or neighbor. An example of this is the Gospel of the wicked servant to whom the Lord says: wicked servant, I forgave you all your debt because you asked me; Was it not necessary to have mercy on your fellow-servant as I also had mercy on you? And he ordered him to be handed over to the torturers until he had paid the entire debt. The Evangelist concludes: My heavenly Father will do the same to you if you do not each of you repent of your hearts. This is the agreement that the Lord makes with us: forgive and it will be forgiven you, otherwise he will not forgive you. Whence one would pray in vain in the Lord's prayer: forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters.
6. The sixth obstacle is because of hardness towards the neighbor, just as there are many rich people who have so much of the goods of this world and want nothing to help the poor of Christ. Since they do not show mercy to the poor they will not find it from God in the future, just as the rich man in hell did not get a single drop of water because he denied poor Lazarus a single crumb of bread.
7. The seventh and last obstacle is due to contempt for and disobedience of the divine law. In Ecclesiastes: he who stops his ear from hearing the law, his speech will be execrable, that is, he will not be heard in the oratory of the heavenly court, just as an excommunicated servant would not be heard in the court of some secular judge.
Above these seven, it should be noted that a man needs to ask above all from his own frailty and considering the divine goodness; Whence Isidore: when we attend to pray before God, we must groan and weep, remembering how many and grievous are the sins we have committed, how cruel the torments of hell we fear, how incomparable the joys we await in heaven. Thieves and gypsies teach us to pray. The thief, noticing what he had done and the torture prepared for him, begs pardon with many tears. The gypsies show people their weaker and uglier members and hide the ones that are healthy in order to move them to piety and to give alms.
So let us show our infirmities and our sins in the presence of God, that he may hear us in the present by his grace, and in the future grant us eternal life.