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Gospel Reflection 20070520

The good you do and the good you speak form who you are.
The ultimate question to strengthen self-esteem is, "Who am I to God?" No one knows you as God does. No one loves you as God does. God created you. You are made in the image of your Creator. This is an awesome image and it means that you are much more wonderful than you can imagine.

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Seventh Sunday of Easter
That They May All Be One

Gospel
Jn 17:20-26

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“Holy Father, I pray not only for them,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”



It’s the last supper...Jesus will soon be arrested, then sentenced to death and executed. So John records for us his last prayer, the last words Jesus would speak in front of those who will be entrusted to spread his message. Oh, Jesus prayed later; he spoke words on the cross but this is his final prayer in public. We are familiar with what comes later; we see what happens in the garden, in the court, on Calvary but on this seventh Sunday after Easter with the Ascension and Pentecost just around the corner we need to realize that this is the son of God praying folks; we need to understand it.
“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word.” That’s us folks, just before died he prayed for all of us whose sins keep him dangling forever between earth and sky for surely the God outside of time still dies for us as we run through life forgetting him, forgetting his love for us, forgetting what he has prepared for us.
And what was his prayer for us? That we would be one even as he is one with the Father. That we would be united with each other in a personal relationship, a relationship that would require us to be the other, to feel with the other, to suffer with the other... Real lovers do that don’t they? Deacon Stephen, the first martyr, did it as he breathed his last forgiving those who had stoned him, perhaps looking into the eyes of the young Saul who would some day share the same vision that Stephen died looking at, a vision of the risen Lord. Jesus wants us to experience the love of the Father through loving Him and loving each other. That's what he means by being one: that we, who count Jesus as our Lord and savior, are to be one with Him and one with each other. That we should be like God in our loving. We should be one in the Spirit.
And he gives to us the glory that the Father has given Him. He says that. But what is that glory that the Father has given Him? Is it the glory of power and possession? Is it a comfortable life and the adulation of many? Of course not. It's the glory of faithfulness, of discipline, of healing and serving. It's the sign of one who loves enough to take up a cross for those who are loved: the missionary in Central America, the social worker in the mean streets of the wealthiest country in the world, the doctor caring for the diseased in the African war zone, the mother who raises her children alone, the neighbor who brings food when you're sick. It's all those visible signs of love around us that speak out to those who have not accepted the message of the savior. They will know we are Christians by our love, won't they?
Were the teachings of Jesus Christ passed on by armies? No, they were passed on by those who saw the vision of Jesus at the right hand of the Father? By those who kept their eyes on the prize, eternal life. By those who knew that we are learning here, learning to love as perfectly as Jesus did. And so if we listen to the words of Acts and Revelation and John today we need to renew in ourselves the actions that show to the world our beliefs. God prayed for us before he died and he told us we would rise again with him. Is his teaching the focus of our days? Do we talk to our broker more than we talk to God? Is it obvious to those whom we work with that we live as God taught? Do we hide what we believe? Do we say I'm Catholic but stand for nothing Catholic? Do we understand that our culture has lost its focus as it careens along aborting and executing? Do we stand solidly on the side of providing health care for all? Do we aid the lepers of our society when they call out for help? Is it possible for us to be called religiously idealistic? Or would that embarrass us? All of us need to look at our lives today. Our Lord and Savior prayed that we would love one another as the persons of the Trinity loved one another. Is our behavior such that our neighbors would look at us and say, "See how those Christians love one another?" If not, why not? That's the challenge today.
Another area we can examine is internal. Sin corrodes love and turns us inward toward ourselves. We grow increasingly selfish. The world tirelessly promotes freedom as license to do what ever you want. This turns us into slaves to our passions. How free am I to say no to sin in my life? How often is self-indulgence to whims and senses what I prefer? Sin creates an interior disharmony, an interior fracture between what my conscience presents as God’s will and how I am actually living. If we love God, we will obey him. Love apart from such obedience is an illusion, a lie, and if my relationship with Christ is not right, then all others rest on shifting sand.

Love Suffers and Endures
Far away places with strange sounding names have once again grabbed the Catholic imagination and sent numerous Catholics globe-trotting in search of the sacred. We Catholics love our special times and places. We are constantly on the watch for the revelation of God in human history and within his good creation. We Catholics believe that grace is everywhere. All things have the potential to speak of the wonders of God. Our entire sacramental and liturgical traditions rest on the constant and pervasive presence of grace.
From the setting sun to the word of a fellow human, there are limitless ways of being surprised by grace. While we do not want to deny the importance of visiting shrines or making pilgrimages to holy places, we must not forget the wisdom of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: "There is no place like home." We do not have to go over the rainbow and down the yellow brick road in search of the Emerald City or the New Jerusalem. If we can't find peace in Kansas, then maybe we never lost it or it was an illusion and not the real thing.
In a most dramatic way Jesus tells us that revelation is an ongoing reality. And each of us is an instrument for revealing God! Consider these words of Jesus: "To them I have revealed your name, and I will continue to reveal it so that your love for me may live in them, and I may live in them." What is this name that Jesus reveals to the disciples? What is the name of the Father in which we are called to pray? What is the name we are called to reveal? Jesus reveals the name of the Father to be LOVE. Yes, LOVE. It is the suffering, enduring love made visible by Jesus on the Cross. The very glory of God the Father given to Jesus is now extended to the faith community through the indwelling of the Paraclete. The mutual love of community members for one another continues to reveal the name and the glory of the Father. The very same love which is shared by the Father and Jesus is shared with the disciples. Along with the indwelling of the Paraclete, the Trinitarian love is at work in the community.

The revelation of God's name as LOVE does not come easily. There is a dear price to pay for costly grace. Our 1st reading from Acts provides us with the courageous example of Stephen. Stephen told the hostile crowd what he saw: "an opening in the sky, and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand." Stephen was taken outside the city and stoned.

Stephen refuses to return hatred for hatred. Stephen will not meet the fear and violence of those who kill with his own violence and fear. The glory of God is revealed as LOVE through the death of Stephen. For as death draws near, Stephen proclaims the words of LOVE: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

Suffering love is also a forgiving love. This is no romantic, sentimental "love" but the Lord pledged love of a mature faith.

To reveal God's name as suffering, forgiving LOVE is to live by hope. The book of Revelation presents one of John's visions in which those who love will be reunited with Jesus. Love yields the gift of eternal life. This eternal life is not to be received when we die or at some unknown future time. Eternal life is offered to us now. When we love as Jesus loved; when we profess our faith in Jesus as the Son of God; and when we open our hearts to the Paraclete we have already passed from death to life. Jesus gives life to all who come to him in faith.

Revelation does not take place only in distant lands. Revelation is richer than a fixed list of doctrines and dogmas. Revelation is the self-disclosure of God whose name is LOVE. This God's self-revelation reached its zenith in the person of Jesus and his loving act of the Cross. We are called to continue the revelation and to be the disciples who make visible God's love here and now.

There are times when we will be confronted with violence and hostility for telling about Jesus. So be it. But let us never forget the words of Stephen: "Lord do not hold this sin against them."

posted by Mike Young @ 7:36 AM