Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 10 May 2026), and Thursday was Ascension Day (14 May 2026). Tomorrow is the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter VII, 17 May 2026), an ‘in-between’ day, between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost, a day that could be full of questions and waiting.
Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers the life and work of the social reformer Caroline Chisholm (1808-1877). Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 16: 23-28 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 23 ‘On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
25 ‘I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.’
Today’s Reflections:
Have you ever wondered … If dinosaurs sneezed? How long it would take to run around the world? If moths like light so much, why do they only come out at night?
In his book There Are No Silly Questions (Nosy Crow, 2024), Mike Rampton, who was speaking at the Cambridge Literary Festival last month (25 April 2026), asks more than 200 of those questions children take joy in asking, and asks world-leading experts at the University of Cambridge for the answers. His questions range from science, maths and zoology to history, art, and sports, and the answers he gets are brought to life with illustrations by Guilherme Karsten.
Children are naturally curious. As Samuel Johnson once wrote, ‘Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect’. Children are fascinated by the world around them and they often ask questions that to adults may seem silly or abstract. But their questions are anything but silly. Instead, they lead to valuable explanations of real science, history, sociology and more, and they help adults and experts to put complex ideas into contexts that relate to a child’s own experiences and interests.
Children want answers. They want to know the why and how of the world and things as they see them and experience them.
We should never be inhibited about or afraid about asking about the whys and hows of the world, of faith and of God. Even if we never find the answers, I am sure God delights in our childlike curiosity about him and the world around us. Indeed, I am sure God is big enough for all our questions (and even our doubts. No question, no doubt, is too great or too silly for God to grumble about, or to dismiss as silly, still less as childish. We are free to ask God questions because, for no other reason than, God is God.
Jesus asks questions too – more 300 questions throughout the Gospels – and he often answers questions with yet another question: But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16: 15) … What do you want? (see Matthew 20: 21) … Do you not yet understand? (Matthew 16: 9; Mark 8: 21) … Where is your faith? (Luke 8: 25) … My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27: 46) …
Jesus asks questions of his disciples, his followers, others, himself, even the Father … in the Garden, in the night, alone … on the Cross.
In the short Gospel reading today (John 16: 23-28), which continues the readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel, in just six verses Jesus refers to asking six times, to the world or rather the created order or cosmos (κόσμος) twice, to the day and the hour once each, to love (φῐλέω, phĭléō) twice, and to faith (ōπιστεύω, pisteu) once.
The words translated as ask or asked refer to two different concepts. The word ἐρωτάω (erotao) and its variants verses 23, ἐρωτήσετε; verse 26, ἐρωτήσω) is a Koine Greek verb that appears frequently in the New Testament and that primarily means to ask, to question, or to inquire. It is a word we use to request or to seek information, to ask a question to gain knowledge or to inquire about something, when we are questioning someone directly.
A separate word in this reading is αἰτέω (aiteo), used when we are making a request. It specifically means to ask for a favour, to request something, to petition or to beg.
In this short reading, questioning – whether asking about something or asking for something – is directly related to faith and to the needs of the world.
The word πεπιστεύκατε (have believed) comes from πιστεύω (pisteuō), the Greek verb for ‘I believe’, ‘I have faith’, or ‘I trust’. It is derived from the noun πίστις (pistis, faith) and the adjective πιστός (pistos, faithful, or trustworthy).
The word appears 241 times in the New Testament, It can mean ‘belief that’ (intellectual assent) or ‘faith in’ (trust or allegiance), with the context defining the depth of the belief. But in the Koine Greek of the New Testament, it carries a much deeper meaning than merely agreeing with a fact intellectually. It implies active trust, reliance and placing one’s confidence in a person or thing, rather than mere passive belief.
When I ask God questions about war and peace, justice, hatred and racism, about oppression, violence and human rights, I am not asking questions to try to test God; I am simply asking to know him and his heart for humanity more deeply.
Questioning does not challenge faith; rather it strengthens faith, especially when our questions and requests are asked in love and for the sake of the world, the cosmos, the whole created order.
When we have faith, we must keep asking questions, for the sake of the world and for the sake of those Christ calls us to love. The Brazilian Franciscan, Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara (1909-1999), who was Archbishop of Olinda and Recife (1964-1985), once said: ‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.’
There are no silly questions. We must keep asking questions about justice, about war and peace, about the poor, the hungry and the victims of violence, oppression and hatred, about the environment, about the world or the cosmos, for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the children, for the sake of those Christ calls us to love, for the sake of God’s whole created order.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 16 May 2026):
The theme this week (10-16 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been ‘Parenting with Purpose’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, former Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 16 May 2026) invites us to pray:
Heavenly Father, we give thanks for USPG’s partnership with the Anglican Church of Melanesia. Bless this collaboration with wisdom, patience and vision.
The Collect:
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Risen, ascended Lord,
as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin
may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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