Weekdays of 7th Week of Easter

JESUS CONTINUES HIS LAST SUPPER DISCOURSE: HIS PRAYER

Meeting Jesus through the Gospel

1. Sit quietly, recollect yourself. Concentrate on Jesus. Call on the Holy Spirit. Take your time. There is no rush and there is no fixed rule to follow. Be free in the Spirit.

2. Be aware that Jesus is with you. Use a mantra if you like, e.g. ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ..’

3. Read the passage with Jesus who was there and in the Holy Spirit who inspired it.

4. Note the words and sentences that strike you.

5. Pray about these and ask the Lord to speak to you through his Spirit.

6. Keep a journal of the inspirations you are given for your life. Jesus is present to you and he is speaking to you.

7. If the passage is a ‘dramatic’ one try and live the passage in your imagination. Remember it is not just imagination because Jesus is present now with you. Put yourself in the scene.  It is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus rea

 

Monday 17^th May, 7^th Week of Easter

 John 16:29-33

29 At the Last Supper His disciples said, "Ah, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and need none to question you; by this we believe that you came from God." 31 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for  the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

We can feel the sadness in the air. Those precious days of God in Jesus walking this earth have come to an end. These are his last words before his death. The disciples think they are beginning to understand him. He tells them that the time has come when they will all run away to save their skins and leave him to his fate. But though they are gone he will be in constant and loving union with his Father. Like a lamb among wolves he will be alone, but he is not alone. He is in conscious communion with Abba. Suffering cannot be avoided. It is a dark mystery. In our suffering we too need to be in constant union with our Abba, a father who cares and loves infinitely more than the best of earthly fathers. Have you had this experience? It can be yours.

Tuesday 18^th May  7^th Week of Easter

John 17:1-11a

After saying this, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you; ² so that, just as you have given him power over all humanity, he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him. ³ And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ Now, Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world existed. ⁶ I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now at last they have recognised that all you have given me comes from you ⁸ for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me. ⁹ It is for them that I pray. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. ¹⁰ All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified. ¹¹ I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.

We have heard previously of ‘the hour’ but now it has come. It is the hour when Jesus will make the supreme sacrifice out of love for his Father. Obedience has brought Jesus the hatred of the leaders. They will kill him and he will offer his life as ‘a ransom for many’. He will give eternal life to all who accept him as their Lord and Saviour. They will live in the intimacy of the divine Family. It will be a relationship of love of which we now have no idea. He has completed his work. He has revealed God as Father, Abba, who treasures each of us with a love beyond limit. His love makes him welcome his prodigal children with a hero’s welcome. Jesus has made this possible. He is glorified in our being God’s children. By your life in God do you bring glory to Christ?

Wednesday 19^th May

John 17:11b-19

Jesus continued to pray to his Father at the Last Supper:

11b keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us. ¹² While I was with them, I kept those you had given me true to your name. I have watched over them and not one is lost except one who was destined to be lost, and this was to fulfil the scriptures. ¹³ But now I am coming to you and I say these things in the world to share my joy with them to the full. ¹⁴ I passed your word on to them, and the world hated them, because they belong to the world no more than I belong to the world. ¹⁵ I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One. ¹⁶ They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. ¹⁷ Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, ¹⁹ and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.

God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son into the world. He still loves the world. He sends us anointed by the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t want to take us out of the world but wants us to build up the world. Jesus prays that we do not embrace the values of the world taught by the Evil One. Rather we are to be consecrated in the Truth. In the midst of the world we are to live according to the values taught by Jesus in the Gospel. In your life, do you live by the Word of God? Are you salt to the earth and a light to the world? If each believer truly lived as Jesus would in their circumstances the world would be a different place. Do people around you see a 21^st century Jesus in you or just someone like the rest?

Thursday 20^th May  2010

John 17:20-26

Jesus continued to pray to his Father at the Last Supper:

²⁰ I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me. ²¹ May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. ²² I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. ²³ With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me. ²⁴ Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ Father, Upright One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.

What do unbelievers see? They don’t see Jesus. They see us and our parish. If they are to come to know Jesus it is through us. People are not moved so much by words as by what they see. It is what they see in us that will move them to believe or not. Jesus prays that we may have a unity in love the like of which cannot be found anywhere in the world. It is to be unique to his community. It springs from the heart of each member where dwell the Holy Spirit and Jesus. All the members are then united through the Holy Spirit in him. Unity will be unconsciously manifested by their mutual love and fellowship and constant acts of love. Onlookers must be amazed: “See how they love one another!”. Is this the goal of your life, of your parish community?

Friday 21^st May 2010

John 21:15-19

¹⁵ When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?' He answered, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my lambs.' ¹⁶ A second time he said to him, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' He replied, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Look after my sheep.' ¹⁷ Then he said to him a third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter was hurt that he asked him a third time, 'Do you love me?' and said, 'Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ In all truth I tell you, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.' ¹⁹ In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, 'Follow me.'

Peter denied Jesus three times. Now Jesus reinstates him. Three times he has him profess his love before the others. Jesus does not look at our past but at what we are and what we can become. Peter’s weakness now becomes his strength. He will not betray again but will die for Jesus, as he once professed he would. Jesus tells him to feed his sheep and lambs. The more we love Jesus, the more we will look after his community. Love for Jesus is the source of pastoral ministry. The more we love Jesus, the more we minister to his flock.   The flock does not belong to the pastor. “Feed my sheep”. Each pastor must give an account to the Shepherd of his care for his sheep. None should be lost through his negligence. Are you a good pastor? Jesus prayed for Peter. Do you pray for your pastors?

Saturday 22^nd May 2010

John 21:20-25

²⁰ Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them -- the one who had leant back close to his chest at the supper and had said to him, 'Lord, who is it that will betray you?' ²¹ Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, 'What about him, Lord?' ²² Jesus answered, 'If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.' ²³ The rumour then went out among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, 'He will not die,' but, 'If I want him to stay behind till I come.' ²⁴ This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true. ²⁵ There was much else that Jesus did; if it were written down in detail, I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written.

Peter is now ‘leader’ and he represents authority in the Church but who is the anonymous ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’. He stands for the ‘little ones’ of the Church whom only Jesus knows and loves. They have no position in the hierarchy. Yet they are close to Jesus and lean on his breast. They do not run away but stand at the foot of the Cross. They are the ones who passionately love Jesus with all their strength. They live and die for him. They are the heart of Jesus’ Church. They are the ones whom Jesus holds dear. The witness of the Beloved Disciple remains, likewise there will always be “beloved disciples’ in the Church and so in the world. Each one could tell their own story of life with Jesus. If written the books of the entire world would be insufficient. Are you one of these disciples?

 "Peter's Fish" as served to tourists on the banks of the Lake of Galilee today