Easter VII C

7^th  Sunday of Easter C

Readings: Acts 7:55-60  Revelation 22:12-14,16-20  John 17:20-26

On this Sunday between the feasts of Jesus’ Ascension and Pentecost, the liturgy calls us to unity with both the risen Jesus and one another in the very love of God.  In this age of religious, racial, and social factionalism we are challenged, in the concluding words of the second reading, to pray for the coming of Jesus’ Kingdom of love.  “Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!”

Luke’s account of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts highlights his fearless commitment to following Jesus, even to the point of forgiving his executioners.  In the previous section of Acts, Stephen has testified in a long speech before the Sanhedrin that, as Jesus himself had said (Lk 21:5-6), the temple is not a permanent institution and that the execution of Jesus was simply the culmination of repeated rejections of God’s prophets (7:2-53).  Infuriated by Stephen’s charges, the council drags him out of the city and begins to stone him.  In his death Stephen is united with the risen Jesus. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he sees the glory of God with Jesus, as the glorious Son of Man, standing at God’s right hand.  Like Jesus (Lk 23:46), Stephen prays and hands over his spirit with the words: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Finally, in imitation of his master, Stephen forgives his murderers, as he cries out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Lk 23:34).

Stephen’s death does not stop the preaching of the gospel; on the contrary, it sets in motion the spread of “the Way” beyond Jerusalem.  Despite the persecution that breaks out against the church in Jerusalem, the gospel is preached through the ministry of Philip and Peter in Samaria, Judea and Galilee (Acts 8:1-40; 9:31-43).  Even Saul, who participates in Stephen’s execution, will be converted from a persecutor of “the Way” to the ‘chosen instrument’ who will carry Jesus’ name before the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-30).

The second reading is a series of prophetic oracles from the conclusion of the Book of Revelation.  Jesus, as “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the Last, the Beginning and the End,” warns John that he is coming soon and the righteous will be rewarded.  In the early Church, the nearness of Jesus’ coming is regularly tied to exhortations to be faithful to the Christian way of life.  In our own time, such warnings challenge us to believe that God is not far off, but very much involved with the ethical and social issues we face.  Only fidelity to the gospel will enable us, in the words of Revelation, to “wash” our “robes so as to have free access to the tree of life and enter the city (the heavenly Jerusalem) through its gates.”

The reading concludes with a mutual summons to “come.”  Righteous Christians are invited by the Spirit and the Bride (the glorified Church of martyrs) to come to the Eucharistic celebration: “Let him who is thirsty come forward, and let all who desire it accept the gift of life-giving water.”  They in turn pray to the Lord to come: “Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!”  We who long for the completion of Jesus’ Kingdom come to the Eucharistic feast which celebrates the future Messianic banquet.

The Gospel is the conclusion of Jesus’ prayer to his Father at the end of the farewell discourse in John 17.  Jesus prays that we, those who have come to believe through the disciples’ words, may be one as he and the Father are one.  This is the goal of Jesus’ mission in John’s Gospel.  His act of love in laying down his life reveals the glory of God’s love for humanity, and now that glory is to be given to the community of his followers.  “I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one, as we are one—I living in them, you living in me--that their unity may be complete.  So shall the world know that you sent me, and that you love them as you loved me”  (17:22-23).  The basis for this unity is the indwelling of God’s own love, the eternal love the Father has for the Son.  “Father, all those you gave me I would have in my company where I am, to see the glory of mine which is your gift to me, because of the love you bore me before the world began” (17:24).

As we work for unity within the Roman Catholic Church and among the various Christian communions, let us remember that this unity will never be achieved through the force of political power nor by the shrillness of acrimonious debate, but only through the sign of love modeled on Jesus.  Jesus’ concluding words are: “To them I have revealed your name, and I will continue to reveal it so that your love for me may live in them, and I may live in them” (17:26).