Sunday 21st May 2023 - Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:12-14/ Psalm 26(27)/ 1 Peter 4:13-16/ John 17:1-11

We seem to spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting in a queue in the supermarket, waiting for a bus or a plane, waiting for appointments of one sort or another, waiting for various occasions. Some of this waiting will be in trepidation or boredom, and some in excited anticipation. In most, if not all, cases the time spent waiting gives us opportunity to think and prepare for whatever is to come. We can use this time constructively or we can waist it. How we use the time to prepare can enhance the experience or diminish it. It is up to us.

In the first reading today, we follow on from the celebration of the Ascension on Thursday. The Apostles have just witnessed Jesus leave them as he entered heaven telling them to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. We are given a list of names of those who returned to the upper room in addition to some others including Mary, the mother of Jesus. As they waited in that room what was their mood? Where they filled with excitement at the prospect of the coming of the Holy Spirit or were they waiting with trepidation as to what this encounter would mean for them? We cannot be sure, but we know that they joined together in continuous prayer as they prepared for what was to come.

Our faith life, as does our worldly life, involves much waiting. Time that we should use to prepare. The parents of a new-born baby wait and prepare for the baptism of that child. Our children here today, with their families, have been waiting and preparing for this day, when they will receive Jesus in that very special way in Holy Communion. Others of our community are awaiting and preparing for their Confirmation when they will receive the Holy Spirit as the Apostles and their companions did all those years ago. We gather each week united together but also united across the world in what becomes a continual prayer.

We are all waiting and preparing for something. Our whole life here on earth is a waiting time. From the moment we are conceived we are waiting to meet the Lord on the day we leave this life to enter the next. This is not a morbid thought but should result in a life full of joyous anticipation, a life of continuous prayer. I don’t mean prayer on our knees for the whole of our lives but a prayerful dedication of all we do with the aim of preparing to meet Jesus when he comes to welcome us. Some of this waiting time will be joyous but sometimes things will be challenging, and we might encounter times of trepidation. In life we need rest, nourishment, and support to deal with the everyday issues we encounter. It is the same for our spiritual life, we need the support of the Holy Spirit and the nourishment of Holy Communion to get us through the challenges we face as we await our destiny.

Life here can become difficult. Many of us live through our lives relatively free from suffering but there are many who suffer greatly. There is no obvious reason why some suffer more than others and it is completely arbitrary as to who suffers, how and when. Suffering and death, we believe, entered God’s creation through sin. Sin is the turning away from God’s love and allows evil to get between God and us and if not checked will drive an ever-increasing gulf between us and the love God has for us. The society we live in is increasingly turning away from God allowing sinfulness to thrive in the world.

In the Gospel today we get the definition of the mission Jesus had in coming into the world, his life, suffering and death. It was to make God known to us. It is through his life, suffering and death that Jesus overcame the evil in the world that causes the suffering we see around us and often undergo ourselves.

The more we get to know God in a personal relationship the more strength of faith we will gain to deal with whatever this world throws at us. The second reading today encourages us to be glad to share in the suffering Jesus bore for us. We can turn any hardships we might have into a ministry of suffering sharing them with the suffering Jesus had to go through. Jesus was the definition of innocence and yet he suffered and died to reach the glory of his resurrection. If Jesus, innocent as he was, suffered and died then we can hardly expect anything less and it is through this suffering and death that we will be able to follow Jesus into everlasting glory and join in the relationship enjoyed by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is the Glory Jesus is revealing in the Gospel passage as he prepared his disciples for his imminent departure from them.

The world encourages us to seek all our satisfaction and gratification from this life but ultimately it will let us down. As we wait in our own upper room our faith will build an air of expectation within us. What do we do during this waiting time, how do we develop an atmosphere of joyous anticipation? Our faith allows us to look way beyond this short life here giving us hope as we wait in anticipation for the joys of the eternal life won for us by Jesus. We can turn any hardships encountered during our waiting time into a positive and prayerful sharing of the hardships Jesus took on for us. In this way we will join the Apostles and Mary in the upper room as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost next Sunday and we await the promised return of Jesus.

God Bless, Brendan.