One In And With Christ!

(Homily for 7th Sunday of Easter Year C)

          After his ascension into heaven and as the coming of the Paraclete becomes more and more imminent, Jesus in today’s Gospel passage offers his high priestly prayer for all Christians of all times. In the parlance of Jesus, unity is the propelling force for witnessing that He is truly the Son of God. Jesus in his priestly prayer therefore helps us to rediscover the power of oneness and the way that leads to that unity is the way of love. For this the Psalmist says: “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers (God’s people) live in unity” (Ps. 133.1). And indeed, we cannot but grasp the intensity of this Gospel passage and the other two reading as we draw closer to the great celebration of the Pentecost. It is indeed the Spirit of oneness and of witness that will enable us to realize the unity that Jesus prayed for. As Jesus ascended to the Father he must have envisaged a Church marked with persecution, despair and disunity as we read in the first reading about the case of Stephen. But Jesus in his seemingly physical absence prays for unity and a spirit of witness in the Church (Gospel). On the other hand, those who live in the realization of Jesus’ prayer are like those in the second reading who witness to that spirit of unity and oneness even in the face of distress.

          On the seventh Sunday of Easter in the three liturgical years, we always read the passage of the Gospel from the 17th chapter of St. John’s Gospel. In today’s Gospel (Jn. 17:20-26) we read the third part of what is popularly called the Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the first part of this prayer (vv. 1-8), Jesus prayed for himself, in the second part (vv. 9-19) for his disciples, and in this last part (that is today’s Gospel) for us and all believers. His prayer was on and for unity. He prays for that type of unity that exists between Him and the Father. Therefore to live in unity is a participation in the Divine union. The union of the Father and the Son is our model. And that unity is made possible through Love. If we want to achieve unity we have to love as and like Jesus (cf. Jn. 13:34; 15:12). Little wonder, St. Paul insists: “Brethren, I urge you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, not to have factions among yourselves but all to be in agreement in what you profess; so that you are perfectly united in your beliefs and judgments” (1Cor. 1:10).

          The Gospel periscope is a continuation of the prayer of Jesus at the Last Super which has been identified as the high priestly prayer of Jesus. The prayer in question does not represent only the substance of Jesus prayer at the Last Super according to the fourth Gospel, more than that, it is the prayer that the ascended Christ continues to offer to the Father in heaven. The overriding theme or content of the prayer is “ut omnes unum sint” (that they may be one). The unity that Jesus prays for is a unity founded not on human effort but on the divine union and on the common sharing of the Word and Sacrament. The first part of today’s Gospel revolves around the life of the Church on earth. As such, her unity is a unity geared towards the mission, a unity for the mission. It is a unity that is geared towards the conviction of the world to believe “that you have sent me”. On the other hand, the second part of the Gospel talks about the final destiny of the Church, here we refer to what is traditionally known as the triumphant Church, but St. John in his phraseology calls it the glorified Church. The Lord himself prayed: “That they may be with me where I am, to behold his glory”.

         In his prayer Jesus prays for those who are yet, but will believe in Him, he prays for his future believers: “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me” (v.20). His prayer includes and embraces his present and future followers, those who will believe through apostolic preaching. The aim of this prayer of Jesus was the unity of his disciples, which has as foundation and model, the intimate union existent between Him and the Father, “May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me” (v.21). Jesus prays for the unity of all, as he did in the preceding verse for his apostles (cf.v.11). The unity that Jesus is praying for is a unity that emanates from God’s initiative, his salvific power, and it is modeled on the communion of life and the mutual love between the Father and the Son. The adverb “as” (kathòs) (v.21) expresses the foundation and the model of unity of the faithful, which springs from the Father and from the Son to the faithful.

          The purpose of this unity is ecclesial and missionary: “may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognize that it was you who sent me, and that you have loved them as you have loved me” (v.23). The growth in faith and in love will reinforce this unity in the Christian community. The fraternal union of the believers will bring the world to the recognition of Jesus as the One sent by God and as the Son of God. The community of the faithful will become a sign and a witness of the universal salvation wrought by the Savior. This evidences the missionary importance of Jesus’ prayer, as an expression of the redeeming love of God for the entire humanity. In verse 24 the prayer gazes towards the future, Jesus expresses to the Father his supreme will, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am”. He asks that the disciples given to him by the Father will always remain with him, be united to him, so that they will contemplate the splendor of his glory in heaven. He had that glory before the foundation of the world as the pre-existent Logos. In all, Jesus concludes the prayer with an important reference to the revelation of the true realty of God as his Father, “I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them” (v.26), this has as implication, the participation of the faithful in the same love that unites the Father to the Son. Jesus manifested the love of God during his earthly life, and he will continue to manifest it even in the future, through the work of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the disciples.

          The first reading is a narrative of the persecution of Stephen. And at the peak of torture and maltreatment, at the moment of his death he saw a vision: “Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand” (v.55). In this passage of the stoning of Stephen we see two important elements: First, the usage of the title “Son of man”, and this is the only time it is used by someone else, other than the earthly Jesus, although we can see an exception in John 12:34, here the Jews were merely repeating the words of Jesus. Above all, the title Son of man could have been used here to suggest that the exalted Christ is pleading the cause of his first martyr. Thus, as an anticipation of his role as the Son of man at the last judgment (cf. Lk. 12:8-9; Mk. 8:38). Again, the posture of standing could be suggestive of the fact that he stands in order to welcome the first martyr into heaven. Second, Jesus is presented as standing rather than sitting at God’s right hand. Indeed, the narrative of Stephen’s death is quite suitable today, for it is a vision of the ascended Lord in his sovereignty. The Psalmist takes up the theme of enthronement once again in the responsorial psalm (Ps. 97). Therein the Psalmist asserts that Yahweh is above all: the earth and all gods (v. 9). Be that as it may, we may well affirm that God in Jesus Christ is above all false absolutes that men tend to choose for themselves.

           Indeed, Stephen’s prayer for the forgiveness of his murderers is an eloquent example of overcoming disunity. St. Paul equally exhorted the Christians of Colossae thus: “Bear with one another, forgive each other if one of you has a complaint against another. The Lord has forgiven you, now you must do the same. Over all these virtues, put on love, the perfect bond (Col. 3:13-14). As such, it behooves us to underscore the fact that forgiveness is an essential element for achieving unity. Doubtlessly, we can say that Stephen’s prayer of forgiveness is the first answer to Jesus’ prayer of unity.

          The second reading (Rev. 22:12-14.16-17.20) reintroduces the Advent theme of watchfulness in view of the second coming of Christ. However, it is important to note that it is because Christ was exalted that we can hope for his second coming. Jesus himself proclaims: “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (v. 12). Jesus is presented as the judge and ruler, the Lord and King of all things and all times. Jesus declared that He is “the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star” (v.16), and He invites and offers the thirsty the water of life without price: “And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price” (v.17). At the heart of this passage is the anticipation of the coming of the Lord, the writer says that the Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’ even “the one who attests these things says: I am indeed coming soon” (v.20). The phrase “Come, Lord Jesus is taken from the earliest liturgy of the Church, ‘Marana tha’.

         The passage tries to console the disciples and the Christians of all times that they should not panic about the absence of Jesus, as revealed in his farewell speech. John in his vision is rather giving us a message of hope that confirms that Newtonian law of Gravity: “That whatever goes up must surely come down”. Jesus Our Savior has ascended into Heaven, but He will still come down. And indeed, the Bible ended with this assurance by Jesus himself that He will come, and may we too add our voices in saying “Come Lord Jesus” we need you! For with, in and through His presence Unity will be assured. But in the meantime within the space that exists between the “already” and the “not yet” let us ask Him for the grace to live and love, united evermore as one in the Lord, so that when He comes He will find us united in and with Him!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)