22. Applying the preceding comparison, He says: You too now in this life, the period of your travail, have sorrow; but I will see you again at the day of general judgment (or, perhaps, when their souls should enter heaven), and then your joy shall be lasting.
| 23. Et in illo die me non rogabitis quidquam. Amen, amen dico vobis: si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine nemo dabit vobis. | 23. And in that day you shall not ask me anything. Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you. |
23. In that time, when you shall enjoy the vision of God, you shall not require to put me any questions[106] (οὐκ ἐρωτήσετε) as just now you wished to do (verse 19), because you shall know all that you can [pg 289] desire to know. Thus in the interpretation that we have adopted, Christ, after promising the Apostles the knowledge of future things while they are here on earth (verses 13-15), goes on in the following verses (16-23) to promise them His own. society, eternal joy, and perfect knowledge in the life to come.
Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask (αἰτήσητε) the Father anything, &c. These words ought to begin a new verse, for a new subject, the efficacy of prayer, is begun. The correct Greek reading is ἄν τι (not ὅτι ὅσα ἄν), and agrees with the Vulgate, “si quid.” Most critics of the Greek text read the latter part of this verse thus: “If you ask the Father anything, He will give it you in my name.” Still we are inclined to believe that the Vulgate reading, which connects “in my name” with “ask” and not with “will give,” is correct; for immediately after (in verses 24 and 26) we have question of asking in the name of Christ. Moreover, the connection between verses 23 and 24, with the apparent antithesis: “if you ask the Father anything in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name,” confirms the Vulgate reading. We prefer the Vulgate reading therefore, and the sense is, that if they ask the Father anything in the name, through the merits, of Christ, He will give it; provided, of course, as St. John says in his First Epistle (v. 14) they ask according to the will of God. Hence the Church always asks through the merits of Christ: “Per Christum Dominum nostrum,” or “Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum,” &c.
There could be no clearer proof than this verse affords of the wondrous efficacy of prayer.
| 24. Usque modo non petistis quidquam in nomine meo: petite, et accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum. | 24. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and you shall receive: that your joy may be full. |
24. They had already indeed asked of Christ Himself; they had also asked the Father; but not in the name of Christ, as they are now bid to do. This was a new form of prayer. The Jews, when praying, begged of God to remember their Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Christians appeal through the name and merits of Jesus Christ.
| 25. Haec in proverbiis locutus sum vobis. Venit hora, cum iam non in proverbiis loquar vobis, sed palam de Patre annuntiabo vobis. | 25. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father. |
25. In proverbs. The word translated “proverbs” is παροιμίαις, which signifies not merely proverbial, but also obscure or figurative language; and this is the sense here, as is proved by the antithesis between speaking “in proverbs” and speaking “plainly.” “These things,” then, concerning His death, His resurrection, His return to the Father, the “little whiles,” &c., He had spoken obscurely. We must hold that the words of institution of the Blessed Eucharist are not included in “these things.” They did not belong to this discourse after the Last Supper, but were spoken during the supper. Moreover, had they been obscure, surely three Evangelists and St. Paul would not have narrated them without some explanation.
The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs. “Hour” is the ordinary Hebraism for time. Some refer this to the next life, some to the forty days of Christ's risen life, and some to the time after Pentecost. With St. Aug. and Mald. we prefer this latter view, for the first opinion seems excluded by the next verse, where it is said they will ask of the Father during the time in question, and we know they shall not require to ask in heaven. The second opinion too (unless it be joined with the third) is improbable, for it was not till the day of Pentecost, when they were “endued with power from on high” (Luke xxvi. 49), that they were able to bear plain speaking, or that Christ through the Holy Ghost spoke plainly to them.