All of us continually make prayers of petition. We ask God’s help with our everyday needs: relationships, money worries, work, health, whatever it is; we ask God for help and expect to be answered and rightly so, since God has told us that we should ask him for what we need. Jesus says it in this Gospel reading: “…the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.” But if you go back a few lines he says something else: “If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love… and then the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.” God asks us to keep his commandments first, because that’s how it is in any relationship. You ask someone you love for something and you know that they will do their best to give it to you, or do it for you, because of your love for each other, but the love for each other is there first. You don’t ask favors from complete strangers, at least not often. You ask people you love.
Love brings with it obedience and faithfulness. A couple who love each other try to obey each other and try to be faithful to each other and as their love grows they know they can rely on each other for what they need. Our love for God is the same. The more we come to know God, the more we know that we can rely on him for what we need, because it is based on a loving relationship, with a real person, the person of Jesus. Our faith is not just about belief in a ‘thing’, or an idea, but in a person, the person of Jesus. We cannot expect God to answer our prayers if we are not willing to do as God asks. What kind of a relationship would that be? It would be just one person using the other, or treating them as a servant. If our relationship with someone we love was only about asking for what we need, it wouldn’t be a relationship at all.
Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” In other words, this is how we show God that we love him, by trying to be obedient to him. What are his commandments? Love God before all else, respect his name, keep Sunday holy, honor you parents, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, or lie. If we aren’t prepared to try to keep these commandments of God, can we still expect him to give us what we ask? Would you expect your husband or wife, or someone you love, to do things for you, if you refused to do what they asked you? Of course not.
God loves us first and that is where we get the strength to do as he asks us. ‘You did not choose me. I chose you.’ What we have to do, is be open in our hearts. You may find yourself saying “It is very hard to keep the commandments. It is very hard to try and love your neighbor as yourself. It is very hard to keep Sunday as a holy day.” You’re right, it is very difficult to live as God asks, if you rely only on your own strength, but we are not expected to. We rely on God’s strength for these things. It’s called grace and that’s what makes the difference. I could not live as a celibate man by my own strength. I rely on God’s help every day. I ask for God’s help, every day. We cannot say it’s too hard, because we have God’s strength to help us. But how do we get this help, this grace? We get it from prayer. There are 24 hours in a day, no one can say they can’t spare 20 minutes for God. If you do, it just means you have no interest, no love for God. We get this strength through prayer, fasting and making sacrifices. Lent isn’t the only time to fast. One day a week we can eat less, or don’t watch TV, or give up something you like, until it hurts. We get this strength especially from the Eucharist. Receive Jesus often if you want to grow in the spirit. We get it from reading the Scriptures, where God speaks to us. We get it through spending time with Jesus in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We get it through confession, when we are healed of our sins.
God constantly offers us this strength, but we have to open our hearts to him. Then you will find a strength that you didn’t know existed; strength to love God, strength to keep his commandments, strength to love other people. We turn to God first to receive from him, then we can live as he asks.
Jesus also says, ‘I am telling you these things… so that your joy may be complete.’ God wants our happiness and shows us exactly what we need to do to reach this happiness. If we do as God asks, we will find joy and happiness. Everything God tells us to do is to help us, so that we may find fulfillment, but we are not always convinced it is the best thing for us. This is one of the consequences of Original Sin: we no longer fully trust God. We are not always convinced He has our best interests at heart. But the Lord continually assures us that He has our best interests at heart. ‘Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.’ ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.’ ‘I no longer call you slaves… but friends.’ ‘I did not come to condemn the world, but to redeem the world.’
‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.’
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