Seventh Sunday of Easter: Dwelling With Christ in a Depraved World

‘Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one as we are one’ (Jn. 17:2-3). ⧾

Our Gospel text today – if one celebrates the traditional Seventh Sunday of Easter, and not the transferred Solemnity of the Ascension – is taken from the high priestly prayer that Our Lord offered at the Last Supper. This prayer is recorded for us by the Apostle John. We do well to return to this text in its entirety as we prepare to celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost next Sunday. Our Lord’s Prayer expresses not only the unity of the Trinity but also our share in the life of the Trinity as partakers of the divine nature. ‘Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one as we are one’. Our evident union with the Father and the Son in the communion of the Holy Spirit is what is needed so that the world may believe in Our Lord’s Redemptive Incarnation. This places a great obligation on us who bear the name of Christian. We must cling to Christ and no less to the Church that He divinely established.

‘I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one as we are one’.  We know that Sacred Scripture uses the word glory when it speaks of God’s inner life; so we who have received the gift of grace share in this very glory. The understanding of this reality consequently caused the Apostles, especially in their preaching and teaching to exhort the first Christians and all Christians in every age to live a life worthy of the calling that [we] have received (Eph. 4:1). St. Paul exhorted the Christians at Ephesus with these words: I declare and solemnly attest in the Lord that you must no longer live as the pagans do –their minds empty, their understanding darkened. They are estranged from a life in God because of their ignorance and their resistance; without remorse they have abandoned themselves to lust and indulgence of every sort of lewd conduct (Eph. 4:17-19). This is more than an apt appraisal of the ‘festivities’ and observances that will take place in the coming month of June.

Nothing is more important for us than to keep ourselves unspotted from the world (Jam, 1:27). This of course, is easier said than done; but nevertheless,+ we must flee youthful lusts … and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace (2 Tim. 2:22). We cannot do this without the gift of grace; and we are heartened and strengthened by one another’s witness and common effort to live a life worthy of the calling that we have received. In today’s Gospel reading, Our Lord speaks of the reality of our union with Him as a mutual indwelling (perichoresis). These words are not meant to be understood metaphorically or symbolically. They express the reality of our life in Christ through sacramental grace; and especially the union that is brought about or effected the through the Blessed Eucharist or what we logically call Holy Communion.

Many of you have begun your novena for the Feast of Pentecost. Our prayer as we await the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit logically embraces the Church and the world in the here and now with all our challenges, infidelities, betrayals and threats of violence. If God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31). The answer is at once everyone and no one for God is at work in [us] both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Let us then be united in the profession of the true faith and let us encourage one another and build each other up, as indeed we are doing and have been doing (Cf. 1 Thes. 5:11). ⧾

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER  MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000   1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→

Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass

Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’…  ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→

First Holy Communion: Sermon from May 16, 1943

 Here is a sermon from the good old days by +Rev. Msgr. Vincent Nicholas Foy (August 14, 1915 – March 13, 2017), from 1943. Readers may recall that Pope Saint Pius X, by the decree Quam Singulari in 1910, lowered the customary age of reception of Holy Communion – after the rigours of the plague[…]Continue reading→

In the Glorious Light of Easter, Alleluia!

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). The Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour[…]Continue reading→

An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders – anticipates – what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious re-creation of all things at the[…]Continue reading→

Europe’s Long Descent

(As we meditate on this day on Christ’s burial, and His descent into hell, it is fitting to ponder here with contributor Peter Marcus how the world seems to be heading there as well. The difference is that, although God cannot ‘redeem’ hell, nor those therein, He can and did redeem the world. There is[…]Continue reading→