First Reading – Acts
7:55-60 ©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
96(97):1-2,6-7,9 ©
Second Reading – Apocalypse
22:12-14,16-17,20 ©
The Gospel According to
John – John 17:20-26 ©
(NJB)
Listen!
The good Saint Stephen did not need to die
that day. As Christians we are not called to be fanatics.
When Stephen had his vision you must know
this, he did not see Jesus at the right hand of God, we know this because God
and Christ in heaven are not embodied beings, they are not visible to the eye,
they have no hands.
We know this to be true.
Stephen was either speaking metaphorically, or
he was ill.
It is tragic that he died for this, for his
allegorical speech, or whatever they case may be. There was much more good work
for him to do along the way.
His martyrdom cut that short.
Be
mindful.
God
is not concerned with earthly title and honors, or are obsequiousness.
It is human beings who are obsessed with
questions of kingship, not the divine.
God is Abba, father; Jesus is brother, teacher;
he was our friend.
God is the keeper of a garden, not the king of
kings, or the ruler of empires.
Let Earth rejoice, and all people in it.
Let us understand that God is a mystery, and keep
in mind that all people are God’s children, and God has no enemies.
God is the creator of all things and all conform
to the will God, in the end. The will of God is just and merciful and loving.
In the presence of God there will be no
dismay. God will wipe away the tears from everyone’s face, and all will be
invited to share God’s table.
If you have never worshipped a carved image,
do not think you are superior to any who have, because idolatry can be found in
more than the worship of objects, idolatry is most insidious when given to doctrine
and presented in the form of ideas and beliefs.
Listen!
The promise of John’s revelation is this:
Every person will receive what they deserve…as
the children of God they will receive God’s love, they will be forgiven just as
Jesus prayed when he was dying on the cross.
We will all receive mercy.
We will be cleansed and made well, healed and
made happy.
We will be whole.
The hungry will be fed, and the thirsty will
drink, the gift itself is free, and that is the promise of God.
Listen!
There
are passages in scripture, and there are many of them, in which the Gospels
provide the reader or the listener, with only a tangled and confused set of
words and concepts that do little to shed light on anything good or meaningful.
The
Gospel for today is one of those passages, so be mindful of you read it.
It
is nearly impossible to get an accurate bead on the meaning from today’s
reading.
Set
aside for a moment that John’s Gospel, has the least concern for historical
accuracy of the four. John’s Gospel was written more than one hundred years
after Jesus’ death. It is likely that the event portrayed here never happened,
that Jesus never spoke these words in this way.
He
may have said something like it, but that is neither here nor there, what is
presented here is a fiction.
What
this meandering passage represents are the thoughts and feelings of John’s
community at the end of the first century CE, not the thoughts and feeling of
Jesus of Nazareth as he walked through the world, engaged in his ministry.
It
fully represents the mystical and mysterious way in which Christians had come
to see the life of Jesus, and Jesus’s relationship to God, the creator of the
Universe. It represents this in terms that have a connection to the prevailing
philosophical beliefs of the day, regarding the metaphysical structure of
reality, but does nothing to explicate the system of beliefs it is specifically
engaging.
It
is poor theology.
This
type of thinking has been a burden on the faith over the centuries and
millennia, and should be struck from the cannon. It is impossible for us to
know what the Gospel writers meant, what the limits of their thinking was,
never mind the fact that the philosophies of the ancient world, their
metaphysical systems, were false, they were wrong, they were errant, there is
little in those thought systems that can help us understand ourselves, the
world we live in, or our relationship to the divine.
What
truth we can glean from today’s passage is this:
Jesus
prayed to God on behalf of his followers, he prayed that they would understand
both his mission and the mission that he was passing on to them.
He
prayed for their unity.
He
prayed that they love one another, and that the message they carried forward in
his name was a message of love, and hope.
This
Gospel passage has the appearance of being directed specifically to Christians,
and that is unfortunate because the mission of Jesus crosses all boundaries;
sectarian, national, ethnic and gender.
This
Gospel passage is overly concerned with the message regarding the identity of
Jesus, it is dogmatic, it pushes the message of who John’s community believed
Jesus was, over the mission to preach the love of God. That was not what Jesus
himself taught. In this way the Gospel deviates from the faith.
Who
Jesus was in the world, and what we believe about him, those things are not
germane. Such beliefs have no bearing on the
way that is meant to be the Christian life.
As
followers of the way, rather than
concerning ourselves with who we believe Jesus was, we need to concern
ourselves with how Jesus was in the world, with how we are able to live a
loving life according to the standard Jesus set.
First Reading - Acts
7:55-60 ©
The Stoning of Stephen
Stephen,
filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and
Jesus standing at God’s right hand. ‘I can see heaven thrown open’ he said ‘and
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ At this all the members of
the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they all
rushed at him, sent him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down
their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul. As they were stoning him,
Stephen said in invocation, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down
and said aloud, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and with these words
he fell asleep.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
96(97):1-2,6-7,9 ©
The Lord is king, most
high above all the earth.
Alleluia!
The
Lord is king, let earth rejoice,
the many coastlands be glad.
His throne is justice and right.
The Lord is king, most
high above all the earth.
The
skies proclaim his justice;
all peoples see his glory.
All you spirits, worship him.
The Lord is king, most
high above all the earth.
For
you indeed are the Lord
most high above all the earth,
exalted far above all spirits.
The Lord is king, most
high above all the earth.
Alleluia!
Second Reading – Apocalypse
22:12-14,16-17,20 ©
Come, Lord Jesus
I,
John, heard a voice speaking to me: ‘Very soon now, I shall be with you again,
bringing the reward to be given to every man according to what he deserves. I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Happy are those who will have washed their robes clean, so that they will have
the right to feed on the tree of life and can come through the gates into the
city.’
I,
Jesus, have sent my angel to make these revelations to you for the sake of the
churches. I am of David’s line, the root of David and the bright star of the
morning.
The
Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come.’ Then
let all who are thirsty come: all who want it may have the water of life, and
have it free.
The
one who guarantees these revelations repeats his promise: I shall indeed be
with you soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus.
The Gospel According to John
17:20-26 ©
Father, May they be Completely
One
Jesus
raised his eyes to heaven and said:
‘Holy
Father, I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words
will believe in me.
May
they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in
you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
I
have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.
With
me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will
realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you
loved me.
Father,
I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may
always see the glory you have given me because you loved me before the
foundation of the world.
Father,
Righteous One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these
have known that you have sent me.
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.
7th Sunday of Easter
(Year C)
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