Jesus gives us a key to understanding prayer life when he invites us, as we hear in today's Gospel reading, "Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you" (Jn 16:16). The interpretive key is found in Jesus himself. It is in His name that we discover all that God desires to give us. God is Love. He wills the good for each one of us in a uniquely personal way.
Christian persecution is not just a matter of another time and another place, as if it happened long ago like we see in the painting Nero's Torches. That would be a comfortable image, if it were true. There were more Christian martyrs in the 20th Century than all previous centuries combined. As members of Christ's Body we must not avert our eyes.
A Christianity that places no demands on our lives is no Christianity at all. When we, mistakenly, try to live out our faith without the demands that our faith asks of us, we’re living a life that’s flaccid and empty, lacking and wanting; and its certainly not a biblical Christianity that we’re living day-to-day. Why? Because scripture makes clear: Love is demanding.
