Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing through Ascension Day, which we celebrated yesterday (29 May 2025), until the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday on Sunday week (8 June 2025).
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Josephine Butler (1906), Social Reformer; Joan of Arc (1431), Visionary; and Apolo Kivebulaya (1933), Priest, Evangelist in Central Africa.
I am about to catch a bus to Oxford, where it looks like I am going to spend much of the day in the John Radcliffe Hospital for a Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Test in the Nuclear Cardiology Test. These tests check the level of blood supply to the heart muscle, and have been recommended after recent tests showed some traces or signs of sarcoidosis may spread from my lungs to my heart.
All this means that for today, I have two long bus journeys, I have been off coffee and chocolate since early yesterday for a 24-hour period, and I may not be back in Stony Stratford until late this evening.
But, 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.
‘Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice’ (John 16: 20) … the Tomb of Amyntas, carved into the rock face in the cliffs above Fethiye in south-west Turkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)John 16: 20-23 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 20 ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. 22 So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 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.’
Today’s Reflection:
‘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’ (καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἐρωτήσετε οὐδέν. ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἄν τι αἰτήσητε τὸν πατέρα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου δώσει ὑμῖν) (John 16: 23).
In the Gospel reading in the Lectionary at the Eucharist today (John 16: 20-23), we return to the readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel.
The Greek words for question used in this passage (see verse 23) can mean to ask in both its senses – to ask question and to make a request or ask for something. Which meaning is implied can only be understood by taking account of the context.
In the first part of verse 23, the Greek word used is ἐρωτάω (erōtaō), to ask, interrogate, inquire of (see Matthew 21: 24; Luke 20: 3), to ask, request, beg, beseech (see Matthew 15: 23; Luke 4: 38; John 14: 16).
In the second part of verse 23, the Greek word used is αἰτέω (aiteō), to ask, request, demand or desire (Acts 7: 46).
Christ does not leave us without questions.
In prayer, we often include petitions or requests, listing off all those things we feel a need to ask for: health for ourselves, family members and friends; wisdom and comfort to face the challenges and troubles we face in life; health, wealth and prosperity; or at least the capacity to muddle through life and to simply ‘get on’ or ‘get through’.
But it is also appropriate in prayer to express our doubts and to bring our questions before God, to ask while, quite often, not expecting answers.
So often I found myself assuring students that there are no stupid or inappropriate questions, there are only stupid or inappropriate answers.
Love is open to all questions.
Faith is not about having no questions. It is about having those questions, asking them, but continuing to invite God to abide in us and continuing to accept the invitation to abide in God.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Friday 30 May 2025):
The Feast of the Ascension was yesterday (29 May 2025) and is providing the theme for this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 30 May 2025) invites us to pray:
Risen Christ, fill us with hope and courage to face today’s environmental challenges. Help us embody your gospel of justice and care for creation and our neighbours.
The Collect:
Grant, we pray, almighty God
that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ
to have ascended into the heavens,
so we in heart and mind may also ascend
and with him continually dwell;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
God our Father,
you have raised our humanity in Christ
and have fed us with the bread of heaven:
mercifully grant that, nourished with such spiritual blessings,
we may set our hearts in the heavenly places;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of The Visitation:
Mighty God,
by whose grace Elizabeth rejoiced with Mary
and greeted her as the mother of the Lord:
look with favour on your lowly servants
that, with Mary, we may magnify your holy name
and rejoice to acclaim her Son our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
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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