Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 1, 2019
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Until now you have not asked anything in my name;
ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
“I have told you this in figures of speech.
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures
but I will tell you clearly about the Father.
On that day you will ask in my name,
and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.
For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me
and have come to believe that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world.
Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”
Sure, that sounds great. But what about when we ask for something that we don’t get? I have just started my third year of medical school, and my first clinical rotation has thrust me into the highly emotional world of oncology, which often causes me to reflect on this very question. The patients I have met are brave and strong, but they can often face grave situations. As I’ve watched patients and their families navigate the news of a terminal diagnosis, I have witnessed a spectrum of responses. A common response for those who believe in God is to feel that their faith is shaken. If they have been praying for a miracle, for more time, for a cure, why isn’t God answering? Today’s Gospel doesn’t seem to answer this question. But it offers comfort as we confront struggles in our lives by urging us to keep asking.
“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”
Jesus is preparing the disciples for when he leaves them, so that they know to go to the Father, in Jesus’ name, to ask for the help they need. Jesus knows that he is about to face great suffering and that his disciples will face their own martyrdom, as well. But he encourages them, in times of desperate need or in times of peace, to keep asking. Through asking God for help, we give God the chance to enter into our lives more fully. Later in this chapter of John, Jesus assures us, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” Jesus, who experienced the full depth of human pain and suffering, can help us through anything. If we try to trust in him, we will receive what we need.
Prayer
In your gentleness, O Lord Jesus, you never give us more than we can bear. You never ask us to do something without at the same time giving us the needed grace. We thank you for your presence in our life through the Spirit, and pray that we may be a blessing and a life-giver to all whom we meet this day. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Justin the Martyr, one of the most famous of the early Church martyrs, is remembered both for his steadfast faith in the face of death and because he was one of the first thinkers to reconcile the faith with reason.
Justin lived and died in the first part of the second century and is known as the first Christian apologist. (In Greek, the word “apology” means “to defend with speech.”)
His parents were nonbelievers, and they provided the best education of the time to Justin—he thrived in rhetoric, poetry, and history, and later studied philosophy. He spent several years seeking knowledge of God and found several teachers who eventually disappointed him. One day, he struck up a conversation with an older man who introduced him to Christianity. Justin inquired further and began to learn the faith.
Even before this encounter, however, the example of Christian martyrs had aroused his curiosity. “Even at the time when I was content with the doctrines of Plato,” he wrote, “when I heard Christians accused and saw them fearlessly meet death and all that is considered terrible, I felt that such people could not possibly have been leading the life of vicious pleasure with which they were credited.” When he was about 30 years old, he fully embraced the faith and became a Christian.
This was very early in the Church’s history, and few non-Christians knew or understood anything about the faith. Early martyrs were mostly uneducated and died without being able to fully defend their beliefs. Justin, who spent his life in dialogue with seekers of truth, thought that many others would accept Christianity if they had a reasonable explanation of it. He began to write and speak about the Christian faith to other philosophers.
Christian rituals were the source of much gossip because they were thought to be secretive. Justin explained these rites and other aspects of the faith to the people of the Roman Empire, who condemned Christians because they feared they would undermine the nation with their licentiousness and disloyalty. Justin countered that Christians, in fact, were peaceable people concerned for the common good and the rule of law—in fact, he argued, Christians made better Roman citizens.
He made several trips to Rome, where he engaged pagan thinkers in public debate—besting them and revealing their ignorance. In the end, his work was considered a threat to the empire’s cultural religion, and he was arrested and ordered to sacrifice to the Roman gods. He refused and was beheaded with six other Christians (five men and one woman).
The account of his trial and martyrdom remains a valuable artifact in Christian tradition and is considered very reliable. What follows is part of the proceedings recorded when Justin and his companions were brought before the Roman prefect, Rusticus.
Rusticus: Listen, you who are so eloquent and who believes that he has the truth—if I have you beaten and beheaded, do you believe that you will then go up to heaven?
Justin: If I suffer as you say, I hope to receive the reward of those who keep Christ’s commandments. I know that all who do that will remain in God’s grace even to the consummation of all things.
Rusticus: So you think you will go up to heaven, there to receive a reward?
Justin: I don’t think it, I know it. I have no doubt about it whatsoever.
Rusticus: Very well. Come here and sacrifice to the gods.
Justin: No one in their right mind gives up truth for falsehood.
Rusticus: If you don’t do as I tell you, you will be tortured without mercy.
Justin: We ask nothing better than to suffer for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and so to be saved. If we do this we can stand confidently and quietly before the fearful judgment seat of that same God and savior, when in accordance with divine ordering all this world will pass away.
And so he was killed. Relics of St. Justin Martyr rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Justin the Martyr, you were one of the first thinkers to rationally defend the faith that you gave your life for—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Justin Martyr is in the public domain. Last accessed March 18, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
