Friday in the 7th Week of Easter
The Rising that Empowers a Dying

Readings: Acts 25:13b-21; Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab; John 21:15-19

The great season of Easter is fast drawing to a close. It will end with the feast of Pentecost this Sunday, when we will remember and celebrate the great power that is given to all who truly believe in Christ’s rising from the dead. Today, our readings focus our attention on what is probably the single crucial effect of this awesome power at work in the lives of two of the greatest witnesses to the resurrection, Saints Peter and Paul. Although the Scriptures do not give explicit details, tradition has it that they were both martyred in Rome. Today, we are invited to ponder their martyrdom from two perspectives.

The first reading offers us a somewhat factual account of how Paul came to take the road to Rome. The story that is told by the Roman Procurator of Palestine, Porcius Festus, is striking in its simplicity and ordinariness. The Jewish authorities oppose and accuse Paul and so Paul appeals to Caesar. It will be years more before the curtain finally draws to a close the drama of Paul’s life. But the stage is set. And the plot is a simple one. The facts are straightforward. Yet Festus is right in feeling unqualified to deal with questions of this sort. For there is more to the drama than cold hard facts. The questions of this sort that need to be considered go beyond even the complex details of the apparent religious dispute between Paul and the Jewish authorities. There is more to the drama than meets the eye.

The nature of this more is presented to us in today’s gospel, which provides us with a crucial second perspective on the situation. It is a story that is very familiar to us. Jesus questions Peter and thus enables him to repent of his earlier denial of his Lord. But there is more here than an interrogation and an exchange of information. Simon son of John, do you love me? Yes Lord, you know I love you… What we have is a mending of a strained and broken relationship. And what power there is in the resulting reconciliation. Not only is Peter healed of his guilt and restored to the Lord’s friendship, he is also empowered to serve others. Feed my lambs… Look after my sheep… Feed my sheep. And there is even more to consider. This service will not be of any ordinary kind. It will be service in the footsteps of the One who loved us unto the Cross. When you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will… take you where you would rather not go… The power that is offered to Peter is the same power which inhabits Paul. It is the power to return love for love and to lay down one’s life in the service of others. And if tradition holds true, it is this power that will lead Peter and Paul to Rome, where through their respective deaths they will both give glory to God.

Not all of us are called to be martyrs in quite the same way as Peter and Paul. But, like them, we are all called to live to the full the implications of the Mystery we celebrate at Easter. In the very ordinary situations of our daily lives, we are called and empowered to lay down our lives in the service of the One who laid his down for us. This is the power that we have been meditating upon in this great season of Easter. It is the power of the One who dies unto life, the One who is humiliated unto glory.

How much do we wish to receive this same power today?

Thursday in the 7th Week of Easter
Sacrament of Unity and Love

Readings: Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; John 17:20-26

May they be so completely one that the world will realize that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me…

It is sometimes said that the Church is a sacrament, a visible and effective sign, of the kingdom of God. By this is meant that when the world looks at or comes in contact with the Church, the Body of Christ, it can actually be brought into the presence of God. Simply put, to meet the Christian community, or any part of it, is to meet Christ and so to have a God-experience. Indeed, it is on this sacramental quality of the Church as a whole, that the effectiveness of the seven sacraments is based. To meet a true Christian is somehow to have a God-experience. Awesome thought!

And today, Jesus spells out for us how this happens. The Church becomes a visible and effective sign of God’s presence in our midst especially when it is united in the love that the Father has for the Son. Instead of providing us with an illustration of what this looks like, our first reading today presents us with a negative demonstration. Although the event is described as a meeting, we see quite clearly that it is anything but. Although there may be physical proximity of bodies within an enclosed space, there is obviously no meeting as such. We notice, for example, the frequency with which words such as dispute and split and protest and tear… to pieces are used in the text. These are words of division not meeting. And it is perhaps not surprising that it should be so. We are told that the group is made up of Pharisees and Sadducees. And although both groups hold divergent beliefs, they cling to their respective views with the same hardheaded stubbornness and tenacity. Can there truly be a discussion between them, let alone a meeting of the minds? This is a good illustration of how the world conducts its meetings.

Of course, as Christians, we must side with the Pharisees and argue for the belief in the resurrection. But must we also imitate them in the way in which they conduct their meeting? Or does the prayer of Jesus in today’s gospel not indicate to us another way? Among Christians, Jesus emphasizes a unity based on the love between the Father and the Son. How is this unity arrived at? What might the process look like? And how might it differ from what we find in the first reading, where there is merely a stubborn insistence on imposing one’s views on the other? What might our meetings look like if we were instead to first insist on reminding ourselves that we are all loved by God and so try to love one another, even in the midst of our differences? Would this not imply that, rather than emphasizing our differences at the outset, we should first seek common ground? And wouldn’t this common ground then provide us with a firmer basis upon which to carry on our discussions? More than that, if we were indeed to carry on our conversations with other Christians in this way, would we not then be playing a part in the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus today? Is this not a way in which we might show the world who Jesus is and so begin to assume our dignity and role as sacrament of the kingdom of God?

If it is indeed true that to meet a Christian is to have a God-experience, how are we being called to fulfill this high calling today?

Wednesday in the 7th Week of Easter
Commendation & Consecration

Readings: Acts 20:28-38; Psalm 68:29-30, 33-35a, 35bc-36ab; John 17:11b-19

Perhaps one of the most difficult things about farewells is the need to let go. Especially when one has lived a passionate and meaningful life, a life that has made a difference, there will bound to be things and people to let go of. And this isn’t an easy thing to do, simply because bonds have been formed, bonds of care and concern, of charity and compassion. Yet, isn’t this what farewell is all about? You realize that you have to depart, that you will not be as involved in the life of the loved one as you were before, at least not quite in the same way. So you offer the other the very best of wishes. You bid farewell.

And this can be a very heart-wrenching thing to do, not least because you may foresee various dangers that this loved one might have to face in the future, without the benefit of your presence and help. As Paul says in the first reading, when I have gone fierce wolves will invade you… even from your own ranks… And Jesus faces a similar difficulty in the gospel: I passed your word on to them and the world hated them…

What to do? Both Paul and Jesus respond to this common difficulty in like fashion. Again, as we did yesterday, we notice how they are concerned not solely with themselves and the people they are leaving behind. Their thoughts are centred, rather, on the One who had sent them and is now recalling them. And it is their trust in the power and providence of this One that enables them to depart in peace. I commend you to God, says Paul to the Ephesians, and to the word of his grace that has power to build you up and to give you your inheritance among all the sanctified… In like manner, Jesus prays for his disciples, who include all of us: Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name… Consecrate them in the truth… At a time when they might be weighed down with worry over those they have to leave behind, both Paul and Jesus continue to place their hopes in God. Even as they bid their final farewell, they commend and consecrate those whom they love into God’s hands.

And isn’t it true that no matter how great the physical distance among us, when all are consecrated and commended in the same Truth and Love, the bonds that bind us together will never really be broken?

How are we being invited to let go today?

Tuesday in the 7th Week of Easter

Final Farewell

Readings: Acts 20:17-27; Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21; John 17:1-11a

Today we listen to the farewell speeches of two different men. One is a tentmaker, the other a carpenter. One has traveled far and wide across Asia Minor and now speaks at a place called Miletus. The other has moved only within the narrow confines of ancient Palestine and now speaks in the city of Jerusalem. One addresses what is probably a largely gentile audience, the other has been speaking to fellow Jews and now prays to his Father in heaven. These are two different men, speaking at different times and places, to different groups of people.

Yet, the content of what they have to say is strikingly similar. Both are bidding their final farewell. And in so doing, both offer a summary of what their lives have been about, of what they have stood and fought for. Still, even though they are both speaking about themselves, the central place in their respective accounts is occupied by Someone else. For his part, Paul states his earnest desire: that when I finish my race I have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me… to bear witness to the Good News of God’s grace. And as far as his audience – the Ephesians – are concerned, his conscience is clear in having without faltering put before you the whole of God’s purpose. Clearly, it is God’s grace and God’s purpose that has been and continues to be the driving force in Paul’s life. The same can be said of Jesus. I have glorified you on earth and finished the work that you gave me to do. Both Paul and Jesus have allowed their lives to revolve solely around the will of God. Indeed, this is the poignant reason why they are bidding their farewells. One will make his way to Rome, to imprisonment and decapitation. The other will be made to climb a hill outside Jerusalem where he will shed his life-blood on a cross. The sacrifice of one will imitate and make known that of the other. For it is through this Other’s sacrifice that the fruit of eternal life will be borne for all. And eternal life is this: to know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Two very different men. Two very similar lives. And this is only to be expected. For one is the follower and the other the Master. The first is a Christian. The second is the Christ.

And what of us? When the time comes for us to bid our final farewell, what will we be speaking of?

Saturday in the 6th Week of Easter

The Ministry of Encouragement

Readings: Acts 18:23-28; Psalm 47:2-3, 8-9, 10; John 16:23b-28

One of the things I’m afraid of, as someone who has the happy responsibility of preaching from the pulpit, is that I might become a nag. Why, you might wonder. Well, we all know what a nag is, don’t we? Who wants to listen to a nag? In my own experience, for example, the people I like to be around, the people I’m more likely to listen to, even when they tell me things that are difficult to hear, are not those who nag at me. Those I tend to listen to are those who somehow give me the sense that they are on my side. They somehow make me feel good about myself, even when they are offering me constructive criticism. The naggers on the other hand, I tend to avoid like the plague. And even when I can’t avoid them, even when I have to listen to them, I find that my mind seems spontaneously to switch off whenever I hear their voice. I’m not sure if you have the same experience, but I seem to have an allergy to those who always seem to delight in finding fault with something or other, those who always seem to be telling people to stand up straight or tuck in your shirt, so to speak.

How different is the approach taken by those in our readings today. My attention is drawn, for example, to a word that appears twice in the first reading. And this word is not nag. No. On the contrary, the word is encourage. We are told first that Paul travels through Galatia and Phrygia, encouraging all the followers. We also hear of how the Christian community encouraged Apollos in such a way that his zeal and talents as a preacher bear fruit for the good of the early church. And we notice also how this encouragement is really the result of a choice that is made. In the case of Apollos, for example, the community could have acted quite differently. For in spite of his eloquence and sound knowledge of the scriptures, he had only experienced the baptism of John. Yet, instead of harping on his deficiencies, Priscilla and Aquila take him under their wing, offering him the encouragement and support he needs to flourish in the ministry.

We have also been witnessing the same thing happening in the gospel readings of these days. Jesus knows his disciples well. He knows all their shortcomings. He knows, for example, that they will soon desert and deny him. Yet, in his farewell discourse, his concern is not with nagging them but with encouraging them to persevere in the truth. Today, in particular, he reminds them of that one truth that we all need continually to be reminded of. He tells them that the Father himself loves you… And it is through this same encouragement that they will find strength to survive and surmount the difficulties that lie ahead.

Together, Paul and Priscilla, Aquila and Jesus demonstrate to us the truth that, as Christians, we are all called to a ministry not so much of nagging and finding fault, but of consolation and encouragement. Listening to their example, we might perhaps remember with gratitude the different people in our own lives through whom God continues to encourage us, and so find the strength to reach out in our turn to encourage others.

How are we being invited to exercise our God-given ministry of encouragement today?