As the supper goes on, another promise falls from the lips of Our Lord. He is conscious of our spiritual penury; He knows well how imperfectly we grasp the implications of what He has taught; above all, He is filled with anxiety lest the world, the flesh, and the devil, undo His work for our souls and rob Him of that love of ours which He prizes. Accordingly, He indicates a sure source from which to draw abundance to supply all our needs.
You have a Father in heaven, He reminds them. "If you ask Him anything in My Name, He will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." Hence He pledges His word that no Prayer will go unanswered. He urges us to ask much in prayer; He complains that we do not ask enough; He longs to see us happy and contented, like children who have received gifts from a loving father, and He assures us, not only in this place, but in many others, that we shall receive.
He loves us too much to promise to give us always just what we ask. No loving father or mother will allow a little child to play with a sharp knife, no matter how persistently the child clamors for it. No parent who loves will permit the child to wander into the street where the traffic is racing backwards and forwards, or into an area that is infected with disease. In all such cases the refusal to grant what is asked for can be explained only by love.
All of us are children, whether we are just eight or eighty-one, where our heavenly Father is concerned. And very often we ask for the wrong things. just like the child, we think we are good judges; but there is another who judges differently, who sees farther ahead, and withholds what our childish hands reach out for so eagerly. Only love can explain the refusal. Of this we must be absolutely convinced. "I have many things to tell you," Our Lord said on one occasion, "but you cannot bear them now." The words have an application here. One of the joys of heaven will be the clear recognition of our heavenly Father's solicitude as evidenced by His refusal despite all our requests to give us what we were asking.
We ask "in His name" when our every petition is subordinated to the divine Will. Here is a chance of making a tremendous act of confidence. It would be easy to acquiesce in the divine refusal if God first of all led us by the hand and showed us the implications of our petitions. We would then at once abandon them, seeing that they are injurious to our true interests. But it is, above all, when we accept the divine response without seeing why God refuses that our prayer rings true and abounds in merit.
There are certain prayers which cannot be otherwise than acceptable to God. A man is a victim of violent and persistent temptation to drink or impurity or injustice. It is beyond question that God is willing to help him here. This man must do his own part, indeed, and the struggle may be prolonged and call for many a sacrifice. But it is most true that every man, whatever be his past record of sin, whatever be the number of broken promises in the past, even though he may have led others too, and many of them, into grievous sin, can yet, through God's grace make a complete recovery. God will, unquestionably, give grace sufficient to Me, never again, from this moment here at my priedieu till I die, to sin mortally.
Jesus, tell me what to ask and how to ask, for I am ignorant of what is good for me. Jesus, I know I can ask with confidence, relying on Your promise. Jesus, I need virtue to withstand the onslaughts of the world, steeped as it is in a false philosophy. Protect me from contagion; this request, I know, can be made without qualification.