On Thursday, we once again jumped ahead two chapters, now to John 14 (vv. 6-14) as we celebrate the feast of the two apostles Philip and James (the gospel reading replaced for the day [Jn 13:16-20] was the conclusion of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper in which Jesus reinforces the fact that they should follow His example).  Fittingly, the gospel features interaction between Jesus and Philip.  The reading starts with Jesus responding to Thomas’s question about how the apostles are to follow Jesus if they don’t know where He is going.  Jesus responds that He is the way, the truth, and the life who leads us to the Father.  Philip then says that the apostles want to see the Father and Jesus responds that He and the Father are in each other and that the works the Son has done are from the Father.  Believers in Jesus are promised to do even greater works and that their prayers will surely be answered.  Do we have the sort of confidence that we will get what we ask for?  We should have complete trust that we will.  Does this mean that our desire to win a big lottery prize will be fulfilled?  Probably not.  Or that we will never be sick again from this day forward.  Unlikely.  What Jesus wants is that we conform our wills so perfectly to what the Holy Trinity desires of us that we will recognize that what happens in our lives is exactly what we need: “Your will be done on earth as in heaven” (Mt 6:10).  If Jesus can cry out in His agony in the garden, “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42) then how much more should we ask for what we need according to the perfect will of God?