Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” 

When we pray in the name of Jesus, we are relying on his intimacy with the Father, trusting that the Father will listen to his Son who pleads on our behalf. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear that Jesus, like us in all things but sin, a fellow sufferer with us, has entered as our advocate into the heavenly court. Risking a crude comparison, it is as though Jesus is our man in City Hall, a representative for us in the place of ultimate power. 

Mind you, this analogy breaks down in the measure that the Father must not be construed as a reluctant and distracted executive, annoyed by the petty appeals of his constituents, which are mediated by a persistent lobbyist. For the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus has become our advocate, precisely because the Father wanted him to assume this role for us; therefore, presumably, the Father delights in hearing us call upon him through his Son.