Homily for the Evening Mass on the Seventh Sunday of Easter
Readings for Year A: Acts 1:12-14; Psalm 26; I Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11
In our readings today there is a focus on the Church and its beginnings. As we have for the last few weeks, we hear in the Gospel John’s account of Jesus words at the Last Supper. Here Jesus prays for group of disciples gathered around him. These are the ones he says the Father took from the world to give him. They are the beginnings of the Church. They are the ones who will receive the Holy Spirit and go out and spread the Gospel to all peoples.
In our first reading we see this group gathered in prayer. They have just experienced the ascension. Jesus has been taken up from them and told them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is what we see them doing, gathered in in prayer the Upper Room with Mary and the other women who had accompanied Jesus on his journey and had been at the foot of the cross. When the Spirit comes at Pentecost they will go out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
In our second reading the story moves on. Peter is writing to the early Christians who are experiencing persecution. He tells them that, rather than being surprised and distressed by this, they should be happy to share in the sufferings of Christ and see it as a sign that the Spirit of God, that Spirit for which the disciples were waiting in the first reading, is resting on them. If they suffer for being Christian they should thank God that they are Christians, sharing in the life and glory of Christ.
As we look at the beginnings of the Church we realise that we are successors of those disciples. Even if, at the moment, we can only gather virtually for prayer, we can unite ourselves with those gathered in the Upper Room. As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost next week we can ask that we might be open to the Spirit coming into our own lives to give us strength and courage. The Spirit who is a work in our lives helping us to see what it means for each one of us to be Christians in our own time. It not quiet the same as it was for those disciples waiting in prayer, it is not quite the same as it was for those Christians for whom Peter was writing. By and large we do not experience persecution, although we may experience indifference and a lack of understanding. We live out the Gospel in different ways, in what we say, how we act, how we reach out to others in need. We especially need to ask for the Spirit to show us how to live the Gospel in the present situation. How can we be a source of hope? How can we respond to the needs of people? What are the Christian values which we need to promote in this time of the coronavirus. As we come together in prayer today this is what we might ask for. As we pray ourselves so we remember Christ praying for his disciples at the Last Supper. On Thursday we celebrated Christ’s Ascension into glory. In the words of one of the formulas in the penitential rite of the Mass we remember that Christ is “seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us”. That prayer of Christ for his Church is there to support and strengthen us as it was for the disciples at the Last Supper, as it was for them gathered in prayer before Pentecost and as it was for that persecuted community for which Peter wrote.
Fr Chris Pedley, SJ