Sunday Vigil
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 16,23-28
When that day comes, you will not ask me any questions. In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name. Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete. I have been telling you these things in veiled language. The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language but tell you about the Father in plain words. When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, because the Father himself loves you for loving me, and believing that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
"Until now you have not asked for anything in my name," that is, they did not join Jesus in the communion of his Spirit. Their faith was still immature, they thought of Jesus within the categories of the world. To understand Jesus and to be close to him, we need to accept his very Spirit in our hearts. The disciples will receive it on the day of Pentecost, and it will stay with them all of their days. We too receive the Spirit in sacramental signs and whenever the Word is proclaimed. As Jesus' disciples then, the eyes of our heart open and we understand the great mystery of love that surrounds us. Communion with Jesus is not the result of theoretical knowledge; it is above all a communion of love and of trusting abandonment to him. Overwhelmed by this love, the Apostle Paul said, "For to me, living is Christ" (Phil 1:21). Communion with Jesus allows us to understand the words that follow: "On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." Jesus says to his disciples, and to us, that he came on earth to be one with his disciples and so to bring them into the bosom of the Father. He is about to pass from this world to the Father. And yet, he returns to the Father no longer alone, as he had descended, but with the disciples of yesterday, today and tomorrow, whom he acquired with his own blood. We thank the Lord for his love that surrounds us and saves us.