Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17:9-17

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

According to our Christian tradition, this past Thursday we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to the Holy Scriptures, occurred forty days after his glorious resurrection. The Ascension Day reminds us of Jesus’ victory over the evil earthly powers that kill the righteous and try to destroy life; however, in the face of such evil, God responds with Justice and Life and raises Jesus from the tomb. Thus, Jesus ascends victoriously, after having resisted and overcome evil human powers.

According to the Holy Scriptures, for about three years Jesus walked with his disciples and called them to form a new people, a new community, the seed of the Kingdom of God. So, Jesus was their friend, teacher, spiritual guide, and priest. Now Jesus must depart, and the community must grow, mature in faith, and live according to Jesus’ teachings.

Today’s Gospel is read in this context of Jesus’ farewell and commendation. Jesus knew that his disciples lived amid a hostile world. The word world — cosmos in Greek—is used many times in this passage in the sense of a system that opposes God. It is a corrupt system, but this is the world in which the disciples must carry out their mission. Therefore, Jesus commends them to God: I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. (17,15)

Jesus knows that he cannot hide his disciples in a bubble to evade the world they lived in. On the contrary, the disciples were called to go out and transform that world. So, Jesus asks God for protection as they live and face the evil world-system. In his prayer, Jesus expresses that his disciples do not belong to the world, the corrupt system, just as he does not belong to the world. He highlights the tension between the disciples and the world, stating that the world hates them because they do not belong to it. However, Jesus does not pray for the disciples to be taken out of the world but instead asks God to protect them from the evil one.  Jesus also prays for the unity of his disciples, desiring that they be one just as he and the Father are one. He asks God to protect them in his name, indicating the intimate relationship and shared purpose between Jesus, his disciples, and the Father.

Dear brothers and sisters, how comforting it is to read this beautiful prayer today, which is known as the priestly prayer. It has inspired and strengthened Jesus’ community of disciples who continue resisting today in the midst of a hostile world. This prayer encourages us not to remain closed but to go out into the world and transform it with our actions of love and life. We are not called to live out of the world-system but to transform it with God’s power. That is the community Jesus dreamed of and entrusted to God’s care.

Today, in the context of the celebration of Mother’s Day, let me make a connection between Jesus’ prayer and a mother’s prayer. All of us have a mother who, like Jesus, has prayed for us, and commended us to God. Our mothers spoke to us about God, taught us Christian values, strengthened us, blessed us, and let us go out into the world. And the prayers of those mothers who now are in God’s presence continue inspiring and strengthening our lives.  Our mothers have Jesus’ heart!

So today, as we live our Christian commitment, we have the great joy of being comforted by Jesus’ priestly prayer and our mother’s loving prayer. We thank God for those women who, like Jesus, love and care for their children and for those who having a mother’s heart care for the sacred mystery of life in this world.

Amen.