I know most of the country has transferred Ascension Thursday to Sunday, today. For us in the Archdiocese of New York, last Thursday was Ascension Thursday and today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Frankly that’s how it should be, and I definitely prefer it this way. For the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A, Jesus continues his high priestly prayer. He prophesizes his departure, and then prays for those given to Him.
Three years ago on this Gospel I highlighted what Jesus said was the means to eternal life: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” I consider this to be very important. To know God through Jesus Christ is eternal life.
But how does one “know God”? Read Jesus’s last paragraph here; He tells
us. (1) Belonging to God through Jesus,
(2) keeping God’s word, (3) knowing that everything comes from God, (4) receiving
God’s word, and (5) understanding and accepting God’s word.
Today’s Gospel:
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
~Jn:17: 1-11
Since almost all of the rest of the country is on a different liturgical
schedule, it is difficult to find pertinent homilies for the Seventh Sunday of
Easter. This children’s animation from Singapore
(I think) called, “St. Joseph’s Corner,” does an excellent job of explaining
the readings.
St. Joseph’s Corner:
The Seventh Sunday of
Easter comes between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost. It is a time when the
Church remembers what it means to wait on God’s promise. The readings show the disciples gathered in
prayer holding on to hope for what is to come…The Gospel shares the prayer of
Jesus for His friends asking the Father to keep them safe and united. The Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A
invites us to reflect on our faith while we wait for God to act. It is a call to trust, to pray, and to hope,
and to stay close to others who share the same hope.
On the Seventh Sunday
of Easter of Year A, it aligns with the theme of trusting God while awaiting His
work. [It] invites us to reflect on
Jesus’s prayer before He leaves His disciples.
He prays for Himself, His followers, and all who will believe in
Him. His words remind us of the
importance of our relationship with God, the need for unity, and the call to love
one another.
Perhaps that was intended for children, but that was pretty deep for adults too!
I’m going to go all the way to Nigeria for the pastoral homily.
I really enjoyed Fr. Martin Badejo’s homily who outright tells us his
central theme: “Cultivate the Habit of Prayer.”
Fr. Martin:
This Gospel passage
is referred to as the Priestly Prayer of Christ…He asks the Father to glorify Him.
He speaks of the source of eternal life
as knowing the Father and Him whom the Father sent. Then he prays about his disciples as well. He makes his prayer directly to the Father for
them so that the Father will protect them in the world, for they are in the
world and He is going back to the Father. In this short passage we find a lot of themes
condensed together; such themes include the unity between the Father and Jesus,
the glorification of Jesus, the connection between Jesus and heaven as he
lifted up His eyes to pray, the meaning of eternal life, the concern and care
of Jesus for his disciples, the manifestation of the Father's name to the
disciples.
If there is one thing
[Jesus] teaches us it is that we also must cultivate the habit of prayer. In that prayer of Jesus we observe the
fluency of His words and His request from the Father. This can only be possible on the pre-existing
Foundation of a Unity which derives from consistency [of] communication. In other words if he had not been consistently
united with His Father and in contact with the Father His communication with the
Father at this point would not be as fluent…That communication which sustains relationship
is very necessary even between us and God. Jesus never for once took it for granted that
since He's the son of God or because He is co-equal with the Father then He
does not need to pray. He communicated
with the father all the time; in fact even his breath was prayer.
We should learn from
the Lord. We should cultivate the habit of prayer. We should let our lives be an acceptable
offering to the Father. This can be
effectively done and suitably achieved by the foundation of a constant
communication with Him. It must become
for us a habit to talk to God.
Make sure you watch Fr. Martin to the end where he will take up a guitar
and sing a Gospel song.
Sunday Meditation: "
I pray for them.”
We sang “One Love Released” as our communion hymn today at Mass and I thought
it was beautiful.
One bread, one body,
one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.
One prayer, one
blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.
Is not this bread we
share, the body of our Lord?
Is not this wine we
drink, the blood of Christ outpoured?
One bread, one body,
one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.
One prayer, one
blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.
I am the bread of
life, eat and you shall live.
To those who share
this meal, my strength I'll always give.
One bread, one body,
one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.
One prayer, one
blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.
Unity is necessary. I can’t stand
those that would splinter the Body of Christ. One!
No comments:
Post a Comment