Daily Gospel Reflection for May 3, 2017

Today's Gospel: John 14:6-14 - Sts. Philip and James, Apostles

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells Thomas that He “is the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Jesus also tells His apostles that whatever we ask for in His name, He will do it. Many of us have had experiences with asking God for things that we (seemingly) didn’t receive. But this Gospel passage is not telling us that everything we ask for in Jesus’ name will be received in exactly the way we have asked.

Most of the time, our prayers will be answered in a much different way than we expect. As Mother Angelica once said, “Sometimes we ask God for things and we seem to get the opposite. God sees the whole chapter. You just see the beginning.”

And isn’t it like us to not “see the whole chapter?” If we believe that Jesus is the “Way, Truth and Life,” then we can trust that He will always provide the best answer.

If we were to reflect on those times in the past that God seemingly didn’t answer our prayer, we would realize that He did, in fact, answer our prayer. In many cases, the answer was exactly what we needed. Sometimes our prayers can be so specific that there isn’t any room for God’s hand in the answer. “God, please make my unborn baby a healthy boy.” Well, we all know the baby’s either a boy or girl already, and God isn’t going to change that. Perhaps a more effective prayer would be, “God, please give me the grace to love my baby unconditionally, no matter what the sex or health is.”

Jesus truly is the “Way, the Truth and the Life.” Every day, we can follow His Way, know His Truth and believe that He is the source of all Life.

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Ponder:

How can we pray more effectively to show that we trust in God’s will for us? How can we pray more effectively to show that we believe that Jesus is the "Way, Truth and Life?"