Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter

A cardinal greets the sunrise
at MSF

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,

so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Saint Paul insisted the Christian lives by faith, but I will add the Christian lives by hope. Our hope is an expectation like that of the end who charges twenty-five yards down the right side of the field, glances over his left shoulder, catches the ball with unbroken stride and runs for the goal line. Our hope is an assurance that, if we ask anything in Jesus’ name, he will do it; and so we never hesitate to throw ourselves into the work he has given us.

Part and parcel of the Christian’s life is our mission. We don’t simply ask God for help as we pursue our own ambitions; we’re not asking the favor of divine attention. 

We pray first that we will know what to do with our lives and then, having found that place where God wants us, we ask his favor upon the work he has given us. Whether we’re building a church or a gas station, whether we’re purchasing a house for the family or a pool table for our leisure, we do all things in the name of the Lord.

As we rise to the challenge of Muslim proselytism in the United States, we must remember what we have to offer. Ours is not a religion that promises personal favors from a wise, benevolent, omnipotent and insufferably paternalistic God. Rather, we invite people to join us in the very heart of the Trinity. 

Nor do we suppose we were chosen by God because we are in some way superior to others. In fact he seems to have chosen the dregs of the earth to display how much he can do with so little. 

Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. (I Corinthians 1: 27-29)

We are swept into life and love by the love of God. We live in hope that he will find us useful, as the useless Onesimus proved to be so useful to Saint Paul, in the work of salvation.