Now We Wait<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easter VII (RCL Cycle B)\/16 May 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy Easter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week marks a shift in our life together as the Church.\u00a0 This past Thursday we observed the Feast of the Ascension.\u00a0 Jesus leaves final instructions and is taken up into heaven.\u00a0 His final instructions are to wait in Jerusalem until the Father\u2019s promise is fulfilled (Acts 1: 4).\u00a0 So now we wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this ten-day period known as Ascensiontide a couple of significant things happen in the ancient community.\u00a0 The community begins to coalesce around the apostles\u2019 leadership.\u00a0 The glue that holds them together is a life of common prayer centered on the Temple.\u00a0 The second significant act is an extension of the first \u2013 the community elects a replacement for Judas in order to bring the number of apostles back to their original twelve.\u00a0 So they elect Matthais and bring him into the \u201cinner circle;\u201d thus, establishing the precedence that will become what we now call \u201capostolic succession.\u201d\u00a0 Still, the community waits, and so do we.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This seventh Sunday of Easter reminds us that, just like the original Christian community, we, too, are living in between the promise of Jesus\u2019 return to finally establish the reign of God and it\u2019s fulfillment. In today\u2019s readings, the community that Christ has called into being prepares to carry on its mission in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the Seventh Sunday after Easter, the Gospel passage in all three lectionary years is taken from the High Priestly Prayer (Jn. 17:1-26) that Jesus shared with his closest disciples on the night before his death. Whereas the few prayers in the Synoptic Gospels are short and addressed to Abba, this is an extended meditative prayer that contains a number of themes central to the work of Christ in John\u2019s Gospel. In the verses for today, Jesus prays for the protection and unity of his followers as they are faced with the reality of living in a hostile world when he is no longer with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the reading begins, Jesus tells God the Father that he has fulfilled the Lord\u2019s will for him by making God\u2019s name \u201cknown to those whom you gave me from the world\u201d (v. 6). They in turn have believed the words of Jesus that he was sent by the Father; thus Jesus has been glorified in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his earthly ministry, Jesus had watched over the community of followers God had entrusted to him, and none of them came to harm (except Judas, the one \u201cdestined to be lost,\u201d v. 12). But now that Jesus will no longer be present physically, Jesus prays for the Father to protect them. He asks that they be one, even as Jesus and the Father are one (v. 11b).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he is returning to his Father, Jesus speaks to the disciples of the joy he has known in constant awareness of the Father\u2019s presence \u2014 praying that his disciples may know this same joy for themselves. \u201c … I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves\u201d (v. 13). The message that Jesus has brought to the world, only to face rejection, he gives to the disciples. It is now their mission and identity as well. And since it has been derived from Jesus and not the world, enmity from the world is inevitable (v. 14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be easy for the disciples to separate themselves from the world; but that is not what Jesus prays for them. Because he loves the unredeemed world just as his Father loves it, those who are now the stewards of his message must remain in the world. Apart from their witness, there would be little hope for others. God, who has been with Jesus, will now also preserve the disciples from evil. \u201cI am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one\u201d (v. 15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus goes on to pray that they may be made holy by the truth of the Father\u2019s message they have received (v. 17). Just as the Father sent the Son into the world with the ultimate truth, Jesus now sends the disciples out with the same truth. By his own sacrifice he is consecrating \u2014 \u201csanctifying\u201d \u2014 himself even now (v. 19), as he is about to face arrest. His consecration in ultimate truth is essential to their consecration in that same truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christ\u2019s revelation of himself to the disciples is now complete. Even though they will fail badly within the next few hours as Jesus is arrested, their witness to the Gospel will survive. Christ\u2019s prayer is an ongoing intercession as he prays that the disciples be made holy by the truth they have received from him, as they are sent out into the world to bear witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his final hours, Jesus prayed for the protection, unity, sanctification, and joy of the disciples as he prepared to leave this world to go to the Father. The disciples for whom Jesus prayed are our representatives; thus, as the Lord prayed for them and sent them, so he prays and sends us today as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, however, we wait anticipating the gift of Holy Spirit as promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy Easter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now We Wait Easter VII (RCL Cycle B)\/16 May 2021 Happy Easter! This week marks a shift in our life together as the Church.\u00a0 This past Thursday we observed the Feast of the Ascension.\u00a0 Jesus leaves final instructions and is taken up into heaven.\u00a0 His final instructions are to wait in Jerusalem until the Father\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homily","tag-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}