“Amen” is a Hebrew word. The root means “to confirm, to support,” and the Jewish people used it to express a response of agreement to something that was said, somewhat the way it is used in response to evangelical preachers today.
To use it as Jesus did, at the beginningof a sentence (“Amen, I say to you…”) was unusual. It is not found on the lips of anyone in the New Testament except Jesus. Nor is it found in any early Church writings by others. Yet in the Gospels Jesus uses it 75 times.
What does this peculiar usage suggest? The “amen” Jesus uses to introduce something he is about to say is his assurance that he is not saying this on his own. It comes from the Father, and the Father guarantees the truth of what he is saying.
This relationship of Jesus to the Father is a particular emphasis of John’s Gospel…and it is only in John that Jesus uses a double “amen” – as in the passage in the next post.
The Last Supper Discourse continues with a remarkable statement by Jesus: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do.” Jesus says it twice in this passage. (He will say it five more times in this Discourse.)
There is something very significant to notice here: The “you” is plural. In other words, Jesus is talking about his disciples (including future disciples) praying as a group – a believing, worshiping community.
Rabbis taught that when two or more believing Jews sat together to talk about the Law, the divine presence was with them. Jesus reworks that thought to say that when his disciples pray in his name, he is with them.
This has major implications for among other things, our celebration of the Eucharist. The rituals, Scripture readings, prayers, music, aren’t provided so that each of us as individuals can become absorbed in our own private prayer. There is a time and a place for that. But there is special power in a praying community, because Jesus is especially present in such a community.
This is an awareness we need to recover – a sense of the Lord present among us as a connected group, and a sense of the power of such prayer.
At Mass this evening or tomorrow, try to experience the presence and power of the Risen Lord in the entire assembly.