End of the Journey

Mar 23: Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Not all journeys are pleasant ones. Paul in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel are both gathering their friends to tell them that they’re “leaving” soon…

Reading 1

Acts 20:17-27

From Miletus Paul had the presbyters of the Church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them, "You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.

"But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again. And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God."

Back when Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus, Jesus told Ananias that Paul will “have to suffer for my name.”¹ Turns out, Jesus was right.

Before this passage, Paul had been touring around the Mediterranean. He landed at Miletus, which isn’t far from Ephesus, so he sends for the Ephesians. They’ve been having some trouble with the Jews in their area, and he wants to assure them of God’s grace.

But he also doesn’t promise everything will be fine. Paul knows he’s going to be persecuted in Jerusalem. That’s not the important thing. The important thing is that he bore witness to the Gospel, and they should, too.

Ultimately, Paul’s right; he never does see them again. He does write a letter to the Ephesians, though.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 68:10-11, 20-21

R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

For all of our advanced technology, we still can’t control the weather. Think about that—it’s the one thing we all have in common, to the point where, if you’ve just met someone and don’t know what to say, you can talk about the weather.

And that’s sort of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the things in God’s control. God is able to bear our burdens; God is our salvation over death.

So, yes, sing to the Lord, and thank Him for all of His goodness, which is everything.

Alleluia

Jn 14:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

We’re never on our own; we always have access to the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

Gospel

Jn 17:1-11a

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."

“Jesus raised his eyes to heaven…” We can’t see, not with our human eyes. Yet, being fully human, Jesus had human eyes, too. So why does he look up? It’s a way of focusing, of gathering His attention and directing it “towards” God.

Of course, God is everywhere, but it’s hard to wrap our minds around that, just like it’s hard to wrap our minds around weather. So we use our inward imagination to picture God the Father in a limited way.

Yet, it’s not quite as limited as it once was. Jesus revealed God to the world. He told us the Good News.

Jesus accepted His followers, and prays for them, but soon He’s going to send them out again. His hour has come, and theirs will, too. Paul knows it, yet he continues on to Jerusalem.

If you knew it, too, would you still go?

1. Acts 9:16