“Never REJECT yourself due to the sins you have committed. REGRET will do nothing; REPENT and do something!”

“Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed.”  - Venerable Fulton John Sheen (1895 – 1979: American bishop and author)

Gospel Text: (JN 14:7-14)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“If you know me, then you will also know my Father.

From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to Jesus,

“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time

and you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.

The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,

or else, believe because of the works themselves.

Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,

and will do greater ones than these,

because I am going to the Father.

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,

so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

What does it mean to do anything at all “in the name of Jesus”?

It means that our actions are those of Jesus; saving actions, healing actions, loving actions, forgiving actions, truthful actions, self-sacrificing actions.

It is a bold affirmation, that we pretend to do anything at all “in the name of Jesus.” Is my prayer worthy to be called the prayer of Jesus? Is my effort to be reconciled with my brother or my sister worthy of the reconciliation that Jesus won for us on the cross? Is my prayer for success, or for health, or for mercy, worthy of the prayer of Jesus for whom success was liberating, for whom healing was in body and spirit, and for whom mercy was unconditional?

Let us honor the person of Jesus by the honor we give His Holy Name. The Name gives us access to the person of Jesus, and our use of the Name of Jesus, gives Jesus access to us.