{"id":6444,"date":"2020-06-05T00:31:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T14:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6444"},"modified":"2020-06-05T11:22:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T01:22:55","slug":"waiting-on-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/waiting-on-the-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting On The Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Waiting On the Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a <\/em>sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Passage John 16: 23-33<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Christ, and next Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Pentecost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cin 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.\u201d <\/em><\/p>John 16:23-24<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But\nit is important that we read this Gospel in the context of the entire Gospel, especially\nthe few previous verses; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>\u201cA little while, and you will not see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me because I go to the Father.\u201d Then some of His disciples said among themselves, \u201cWhat is this that He says to us, \u2018A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me\u2019; and, \u2018because I go to the Father\u2019?\u201d  They said, therefore, \u201cWhat is this that He says, \u2018A little while\u2019? We do not know what He is saying.\u201d Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, \u201cAre you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, \u2018A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me\u2019?\u201d (Verses 16-19)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, at this point\nthe disciples are confused, then Christ says to them; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201c<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>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.  <\/sup><\/strong>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.  <\/sup><\/strong>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.\u201d <\/em><\/p>John 16: 20-22<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then we start the\nGospel of today; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd in\nthat day, you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you\nask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in\nMy name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy be full\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cin that day,\u201d<\/em> As Christ is ascending, the Holy Spirit descends and fills their hearts and \u201cyou will ask Me nothing\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nthis makes no sense, its contradictory. Christ says you will not ask anything,\nbut if you ask, He will give you. So, should we ask or not ask? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there is confusion. But we find that the problem is translation. In the first sentence, \u201cyou will ask\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what Christ is saying here is that \u201cin that day, you will no longer question <\/strong>Me,\u201d <\/em>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, \u201cMost assuredly.\u201d<\/em> This weakens the meaning, in Greek, it is \u201cAmen, Amen, I say to you.\u201d Similar to how people respond to how a preacher may say something, \u201cAmen.\u201d It is almost like an affirmation or acceptance of what someone is saying. So, this is unique in that Christ starts the sentence with \u2018Amen.\u2019 He does this so often as He doesn\u2019t need us to confirm His words or accept them as they are the words of God. So, there is no contradiction in these sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Origen,\none of the early church fathers, comments on this verse; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t\nsay \u2018when you ask\u2019, or simply \u2018when you ask the Father\u2019. But rather \u2018When you\nask the Father, in my name\u2019<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ says in the Gospel of the matins of this morning that \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Philip\nhearing these words says;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOk Lord show us the Father,\u201d <\/em>then Jesus replies, \u201cHave 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, \u2018Show us the Father\u2019?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only\nthrough Christ, do we see and know the Father. Christ becomes man to show us the\nway back to God; that\u2019s the meaning of the prayer of reconciliation that we\npray in the mass. The Lord becomes man in order to reconcile <\/em>us to God.\nSo, we know Christ, so we have access to the Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t believe that a bishop would give his tickets to people from another country he didn\u2019t know. So, we kept getting lead around in circles unable to enter; until one of them said, \u2018It’s ok, captain sheriff is going to get you in,\u2019 we said, \u2018who is captain sheriff?\u2019, \u2018He\u2019s the head of the scouts.\u2019 We then weren\u2019t allowed to enter, until, a man came saying, \u2018Do you know who these guys are?! Captain sheriff said let them in!\u2019 They were startled and proceeded to put us into the 2nd<\/sup> row. We know Captain Sheriff and therefore we got access through him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a similar\nsituation with Christ, we know Him, His name gives access to the Father and the\ncapacity to look to the Father. Christ has resurrected a path back to God for\nus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Cyril of\nAlexandria says; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving blessed them and gone ahead a little, He was carried up into heaven, so that He might share His Father\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cthe way, the truth and the life\u201d <\/em>as He says, He resurrected a path, but He also treads that path so that we would know the way back to the Father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As St John\nChrysostom says; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs Christ ascends, we as humanity ascend with Him,\u201d <\/em>because we know Christ and now have access to the Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u26ea\ufe0f Full Sermon Here<\/a> \u26ea\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Waiting On The Spirit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[332],"class_list":["post-6444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-frdan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6444"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6453,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6444\/revisions\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}