7th Sunday after Easter; May 16, 2021)

 

May God bestow on us in today's Eucharistic celebration, the grace to realise that we are to continue God's work in this world, for through our baptism we are consecrated in truth and set apart for a special task of continuing in the mission of Christ which is that of saving the world.

Happy Sunday!



 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Acts 1,15-17.20-26; 1 John 4, 11-16; John 17, 11-19: 7th Sunday after Easter; May 16, 2021)


After Eastertide Sundays when we heard the gradual development of the infant Church, now a passage from the beginning of Acts, immediately after the Ascension, is offered. Perhaps this is either because it immediately follows Solemnity of Ascension immediately, or because it provides a model for the apostolic succession through which the Church is to continue down the ages. The two qualities required for an apostle are that he should be a witness to the resurrection and a man chosen by the Spirit. Of these two, the latter is obvious enough: the apostle, be he bishop, priest or layperson, is no mere administrator, organiser or authority, but is one in whom the Spirit of God dwells. As witnesses to the resurrection, the first apostles were eye-witnesses that Christ was really alive and transformed into fuller life. The apostle today is not an eye-witness of the bodily resurrection, but his testimony is the same in its essentials, for he is witnessing by his life, his activities and his joy in Christ's strength, that Christ is still today a living and transforming power, and not a dead piece of history. Of this every Christian is an apostle and witness. The real mark of a Christian is not that he knows about Jesus but that he knows Jesus. The basic mistake in Christianity is to regard Jesus as someone who lived and died and whose life we study and whose story we read. Jesus is not a figure in a book, he is a living presence; and the Christian is a man whose whole life is a witness to the fact that he knows and has met the Risen Lord, companied with Jesus and lives day by day with him.

 

The second reading, 1 John 4,11-16, a short passage from the First letter of John enjoins us to love our neighbours as a grateful response to God’s love for us shown through Jesus Christ who is the Saviour of the world. When he came into the world, men were not conscious of their own weakness and helplessness. They were desperately conscious of their weakness in necessary things. They wanted a hand let down to lift them up. It would be quite inadequate to think of salvation as mere deliverance from the punishment of hell. Men need to be saved from themselves; they need to be saved from the vices which have become their fetters; they need to be saved from their temptations; they need to be saved from their fears and anxieties; they need to be saved from their follies, mistakes and selfishness. In every case Jesus offers men salvation; he brings that which enables them to face time and to meet eternity. This passage is also saying that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus Christ is in a relationship with God in which no other person ever stood or ever will stand. He alone can show men what God is like; he alone can bring God's grace, love, forgiveness and strength to men. This passage also by mere hinting that we have a share of the Spirit indicates our dwelling in God. It is the work of the Spirit that, in the beginning, makes us seek God at all; it is the work of the Spirit that makes us aware of God's presence; and it is the work of the Spirit that gives us the certainty that we are truly at peace with God. It is the Spirit in our hearts which makes us dare to address God as Father (Romans 8, 15,16). The Spirit is the inner witness who gives us the immediate, spontaneous and unanalysable awareness of a divine presence in our lives.


The message of today’s gospel reading is that Christians are to continue the work of Christ in the world; he sends them just as the Father sent him, and they are in the world but not part of it, just as he was in the world but not part of it. Christians must be consecrated, set apart for God, just as Jesus himself was set apart for God. Jesus prayed in today’s gospel reading that his disciples might be consecrated by the truth. The word for to consecrate is hagiazein which comes from the adjective hagios often translated holy but whose basic meaning is different or separate. By asking that his disciples be consecrated, Jesus means that they should be set apart for a special task. When God called Jeremiah he said to him: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nation (Jeremiah 1,5). Even before his birth God had set Jeremiah apart for a special task. In praying that the disciples be consecrated,  Jesus is also requesting that they be equipped with the qualities of mind and heart and character which are necessary for them to continue the mission of the Son of God, which is his mission of saving the world. Jesus went further in his prayer to request his beloved Father: And for their sakes I consecrate myself that they also might be consecrated in truth. Here consecrate is a sacrificial term and refers to Jesus’ self-offering. He is offering his sinless life in perfect obedience to the will of God on behalf of the disciples to enable them serve God as those who have been dedicated and made fit to continue the revelation of the Father in the Son. Indeed, by the consecration we received at our baptism and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and in addition to the extra sacrificial consecration of Jesus on the cross on our behalf, every Christian is equipped to be a very veritable witness to the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, he is in the best position to participate in the salvific work of God in the circumstances of his life.

+John I. Okoye