7th Week of Easter, Friday

In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that he wants unconditional love from us, but also realizes our weakness and failings. It is not reflected in the English translations of this passage, but in the three times Jesus asks Peter “do you love me?”, the Greek shows us Jesus is inviting Peter to profess the greatest love a man can have, and, gently, Peter responds that he is not up to that after everything that has happened between them. It passes from an invitation to ἀγαπάω (a deep and unconditional love) to φιλέω (a brotherly love or an openness to friendship).

In the first invitation Jesus asks Peter if his love is deep and unconditional, and Peter responds that he has a brotherly love for Jesus. In the second invitation, Jesus asks Peter the same thing and Peter responds the same way: not a deep and unconditional love, but a brotherly love. Finally, in the third invitation, Jesus asks Peter whether his love for him is brotherly, and Peter, hurt that he keeps asking, responds in kind. With this invitation Jesus has brought it down to Peter’s level and Peter has had an opportunity to really explore and state his level of love for Jesus after having said before the Passion that his love was until death and then denied Jesus three times (see Luke 22:33–34 and John 18:15–27).

Jesus asks us for complete and unconditional love, but when we are weak, the love we can muster is enough, if it is from the heart. As Jesus extended the invitation to Peter, who knows whether he was asking him if Peter was still so confident that His love for Our Lord was total. But in the love Peter offered, he was firm. Our love will always be imperfect, but it must be firm, and Our Lord will always ask us, “do you love me” in those trying moments so that we have a new opportunity to tell Him we love Him. Let’s keep trying to grow in our love for him.

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

 

7th Week of Easter, Thursday

In today’s Gospel Our Lord prays for a unity among his disciples that is not just eternal (with God and all the departed believers who have gone before us and persevered in the faith) but also historical (something that lasts through the centuries until the end of time and beyond). Christian unity must be spiritual and visible, which is why we know the sad divisions between Christians today are not what Our Lord wants for his Church, nor that we be bickering like the Pharisees and Sadducees  in today’s First Reading. The world waiting for Christ often looks upon us with the same perplexity as that Roman commander in the First Reading who was trying to get answers and instead got a riot. We can’t hinder the Gospel message through quarreling or agreeing to disagree.

The divisions between Christians at one point in history sadly led to all out war, and Our Lord prayed to the Father that one characteristic of our unity be charity. We are learning that lesson little by little, but charity, truth, and prayer are what will one day enable us once again to celebrate the same sacraments together, profess the same faith together, and follow the same pastoral leadership together. The Pharisees and Sadducees  in today’s First Reading argued about the truth of the Resurrection as a general teaching, and on that point, at least, the Pharisees were right, but if someone is in your face it’s not likely that you’re going to accept any truth that comes from his mouth.

Let’s join our prayer today to the prayer of Our Lord: that Christians may be united, spiritually and visibly, in truth, in charity, and in the desire to share the Gospel message with the whole world, above all through our example of charity.

Readings: Acts 22:30, 23:6–11; Psalm 16:1–2a, 5, 7–11; John 17:20–26.

7th Week of Easter, Wednesday

In today’s Gospel Our Lord continues to pray to the Father for the disciples who he must soon leave behind, just as Paul is saying his final farewell to the elders of Ephesus in the First Reading. Part of human life is the moment where our work here ends and we go, God-willing, to meet Our Heavenly Father. As believers we know that even then we’ll still be involved in the lives of those we’ve left behind: they’re not untouched by having us as a part of their life, and if we persevere in the faith and join the saints in Heaven we can continue to look down upon them from above and to intercede for them, just as Jesus does in today’s Gospel and does now for all eternity at the right hand of the Father.

The one thing that can go wrong in this plan is not reaching where God wants us to go: Jesus warns against the influence and action of the “world” and the “Evil One” and he knows we need God to protect us from the evil that always put obstacles in our path. Paul entrusts the elders and the flock to God so that they stand firm against threats to the flock, threats that see them as nothing more than a free lunch, and those who present appealing lies and false teachings as if they were true. We must be vigilant, but we also know that God is on our side. Jesus may not live among us in the way he did two thousand years ago, but he is still spiritually and sacramentally with us, and his Gospel continues to shape our lives as the truth that will protect us from the wolves, the “world”, the Evil One, and from false teaching, aided by our pastors and deacons.

Let’s pray for our pastors and deacons today, and that we all remain true to the Gospel and have the strength to resist whatever wants to come between us and Our Lord.

Readings: Acts 20:28–38; Psalm 68:29–30, 33–36b; John 17:11b–19.

7th Week of Easter, Tuesday

In today’s Gospel Our Lord teaches us that we glorify God by doing what is pleasing to him, and presents a list of things showing exactly that. In sending the Son God shows us concretely how our lives can glorify him: by following, imitating, and sharing the Gospel of and about Christ. Glory in the language of Jesus today is more than just receiving a pat on the back or a commendation to hang on your wall: it is transformation of your life into something more profound and more wonderful, even right here and now, as the first fruits of receiving the gift of eternal life.

We give glory to God by living a virtuous and holy life while at the same time giving credit where credit is due, just as Jesus in today’s Gospel gives credit to the Father, not just to his own accomplishments on earth. Our Lord has entrusted us with many gifts, not just for ourselves, but for others, and we give him the credit for that by acknowledging it before God and before others even while we share those gifts and edify others with our example of Christian living.

Let’s try to glorify Our Lord today in some act of virtue or holiness in order to give credit where credit is due.

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

7th Week of Easter, Monday

In today’s Gospel the disciples believe they have Our Lord all figured out, and for that reason they declare their faith in him. Within a few hours, as Jesus warns them, their faith will vanish as quickly as the appearance of a group of armed men in Gethsemane searching for Jesus. God is mystery, mystery in the sense that we can spend our entire life trying to fathom him and his designs and never completely exhaust what we can know about him. He’s not some little Internet factoid that we read, file somewhere, and then click to go on to the next thing that piques our curiosity.

Knowledge about God is not enough for a solid faith; it requires grace as well. These same men after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus will be locked away in a room, still not quite sure of what God was asking of them, but waiting to receive power from on high, just as Jesus promised them before ascending into Heaven. Christian life is an ongoing communication with God not only of information, but of grace in order to live all he expects of us.

Let’s also take courage today from two promises Our Lord makes in today’s Gospel: first, that, like him, the Father is always with us, no matter how alone we feel, and that Jesus, amidst all the trials and troubles of this life, has conquered the world.

Readings: Acts 19:1–8; Psalm 68:2–3b, 4–5a, 5c–7b; John 16:29–33.