7th
Sunday of Easter (Seven
= 7)
8 May
2016
• Acts 7:55-60 • Psalm 97 • Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 • John
17:20-26 •
practiced duration:
Title:
“Waiting …”
[__01__] “Yes, I am
coming soon.” (Revelation
22:20)
We read these words today in the final verses, passages, sentences of the Book of Revelation.
“Yes, I am coming soon.”
(Revelation 22:20)
This is the promise of our Savior at the
closing of the written New Testament and written biblical tradition.
These words – “coming soon” – imply also a
time of waiting, of preparation.
We are waiting; we are preparing.
[__02__] What do we do, what are we
supposed to do in the interval of waiting, during the delay?
Many of the earliest disciples of the
Church believed that the return of Jesus would be immediate, imminent.
In other words “soon” meant during
their own lifetime.
[__03__] Pope Benedict XVI wrote
about this in a reflection on early Church, early Christian belief, that the
world would end soon.
Benedict
wrote:
“we too can
say, together with the early Christians: "Come, Lord Jesus!". We do
not of course desire the end of the world. Nevertheless, we do want this unjust
world to end. We also want the world to be fundamentally changed, we want the
beginning of the civilization of love, the arrival of a world of justice and
peace, without violence, without hunger. We want all this, yet how can it
happen without Christ's presence?”
(Benedict XVI, General Audience, 12 November 2008)
During a time of waiting, what often
happens to us is that we may become impatient both with ourselves, with God,
with others.
So, during any time of waiting, change, or
transition, it can be very difficult to be MERCIFUL, to be compassionate.
However, to make Christ present, increasingly
present, this is our calling – to mercy, to compassion for others.
[__04__] In
the Acts of the Apostles, we read about the account of Stephen, the first
martyr of the Church. Stephen’s life was taken by Saul (Paul) and his
followers.
At the end of his life, Stephen prays for
his persecutors, saying, ”Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
(Acts 7:60)
In other words, Stephen was begging
mercy for his persecutors, words which echoed those of our Savior on Calvary on
Good Friday, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke
23:34)
Dying, sacrificing his life for you,
for me , he did so not as an unjustly accused DEFENDANT but as a willing
DEFENDER of our lives, not our current life, but also our future life in
heaven.[1]
[__05__] What
causes delays, traffic jams, congestion in our lives? It is not always the cars or buses on the
Parkway or the Turnpike.
Sometimes another person may cause us
a delay or a difficulty without complete awareness.
Are we not called to pray for those who
cause us to wait, or to take wrong turns?
They also may not know what they do.
In a similar way, I have caused –
perhaps we all have caused – trouble for others even without complete
awareness.
We all need compassion at these times.
St. Paul wrote: “Do not repay evil for evil; be
concerned for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, on your part,
live at peace with all … Do not be
conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.” (Romans 12: 17-18, 21)
[__06__] This
Sunday is also Mother’s Day. We are also in the month of May, a time to
remember the patience and virtue of our Blessed Mother and Our Lady of Lourdes.
It is the special calling – vocation –
of a mother (and every parent) to wait, to observe, to anticipate.
Mothers wait for a child to be born,
to be placed in her arms, for the child to leave home for the first time and
for the child to return home.
We also know that our mothers have
prayed for all of us at these times.
[__07__] The
prayer of Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday
is also a prayer which many mothers
– many parents – would make.
Jesus is praying for you and me, his
disciples in a way similar to the prayers of our mothers for us:
“Father, I pray … that they may be
brought to perfection as one [and] …
that you loved them even as you loved me … [and] I wish that where I am they also may be.
” (John
17:20, 23 , 24)
Is this prayer for unity and for closeness
also the wish of every mother with her child?
We read that Jesus himself is interceding –
intervening – for us before God, praying for you and and for me.
We also trust and believe that our Blessed
Mother intercedes, intercedes for us before God.
We are waiting, but the Good News is also that our Savior and
our Blessed Mother are also waiting, in heaven, with their prayers.
When we are waiting it is also a reminder
that we need some service, some favor, some help.
Spiritually, then, waiting reminds us that
Jesus himself is on the way and that we are called to pray for his return every
day.
To pray for his return so that we may
follow him each day.
Come, Lord Jesus.
[__fin__]
[1]
Ronald Knox (page 584, Pastoral Occasional Sermons) “For St. Paul, Christ did
not die in order that we might live, he died in order that we might die….”
No comments:
Post a Comment