Waiting On the Spirit
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous
Passage John 16: 23-33
Last Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Christ, and next Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Pentecost.
Today we are in between, Christ has ascended, and we still are awaiting the Holy Spirit. And the Gospel chosen to read today can be very confusing. It begins with some very confusing statements from the middle of John 16;
“in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy be full.”
John 16:23-24
But it is important that we read this Gospel in the context of the entire Gospel, especially the few previous verses;
“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me because I go to the Father.” Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” They said, therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.” Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’?” (Verses 16-19)
So, at this point the disciples are confused, then Christ says to them;
“Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for the joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore, you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
John 16: 20-22
Then we start the Gospel of today;
“And in that day, you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy be full…”
So, within the context of the chapter, we see that Christ is speaking about His ascent to the Father, that they will be sorrowful because He is leaving them, but they will be joyful once again. Just like a woman who forgets her anguish of labor after giving birth. Soon they will receive the Holy Spirit in them, and this is the presence of God within them. But the disciples in this period are still confused, and this is why the Gospel starts here;
“in that day,” As Christ is ascending, the Holy Spirit descends and fills their hearts and “you will ask Me nothing”
However, this makes no sense, its contradictory. Christ says you will not ask anything, but if you ask, He will give you. So, should we ask or not ask?
So, there is confusion. But we find that the problem is translation. In the first sentence, “you will ask” is in fact translated to interrogate or question. In the second sentence, it means to make a request or petition. One speaks about interrogation and another about petition; so two different things are happening.
So, what Christ is saying here is that “in that day, you will no longer question Me,” as a response to their confusion. The Spirit will be given to them and they will lose this confusion as God will dwell in them. Then we see another fault in translation in, “Most assuredly.” This weakens the meaning, in Greek, it is “Amen, Amen, I say to you.” Similar to how people respond to how a preacher may say something, “Amen.” It is almost like an affirmation or acceptance of what someone is saying. So, this is unique in that Christ starts the sentence with ‘Amen.’ He does this so often as He doesn’t need us to confirm His words or accept them as they are the words of God. So, there is no contradiction in these sentences.
Origen, one of the early church fathers, comments on this verse;
“He didn’t say ‘when you ask’, or simply ‘when you ask the Father’. But rather ‘When you ask the Father, in my name’”
Christ says in the Gospel of the matins of this morning that “I am The way, The Truth & The life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. And if you had known Me, you had known My Father also and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
So, Philip hearing these words says;
“Ok Lord show us the Father,” then Jesus replies, “Have I been with you so long that, yet You have not known Me, Philip. He who has seen Me, has seen the Father, so how could you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Only through Christ, do we see and know the Father. Christ becomes man to show us the way back to God; that’s the meaning of the prayer of reconciliation that we pray in the mass. The Lord becomes man in order to reconcile us to God. So, we know Christ, so we have access to the Father.
It reminds of me of something that happened a long time ago, in 2012, before I was a priest. I was on a trip with Fr Sam, Fr Paul, and Fr David. None of us were ordained, and we were in Egypt just visiting the monasteries. And it happened that as we were planning our trip, Pope Shenouda III died and they were finding a new Patriarch. So, it happened that as we were going it would be the enthronement of Pope Tawadros. One of the monks had extra tickets and offered that we go, so of course, we went. We found that when we got there it was so organized, but when they saw our tickets, they didn’t believe that a bishop would give his tickets to people from another country he didn’t know. So, we kept getting lead around in circles unable to enter; until one of them said, ‘It’s ok, captain sheriff is going to get you in,’ we said, ‘who is captain sheriff?’, ‘He’s the head of the scouts.’ We then weren’t allowed to enter, until, a man came saying, ‘Do you know who these guys are?! Captain sheriff said let them in!’ They were startled and proceeded to put us into the 2nd row. We know Captain Sheriff and therefore we got access through him.
It’s a similar situation with Christ, we know Him, His name gives access to the Father and the capacity to look to the Father. Christ has resurrected a path back to God for us.
St Cyril of Alexandria says;
“Having blessed them and gone ahead a little, He was carried up into heaven, so that He might share His Father’s throne; even with the flesh (us), that was united to Him. Christ made this new pathway for us when He appeared in human form. After this in due time, He will come again in glory with His Father and His angels and will take us up to be with Him, let us glorify God.”
So, Christ creates a pathway for us when we are lost. When lost in a forest, there would be nothing more assuring than seeing footprints or a path. Christ shows us how to live, love, and forgive. He is “the way, the truth and the life” as He says, He resurrected a path, but He also treads that path so that we would know the way back to the Father.
As St John Chrysostom says;
“As Christ ascends, we as humanity ascend with Him,” because we know Christ and now have access to the Father.
⛪️ Full Sermon Here ⛪️