We're All Connected
May 16: Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
As I mentioned last week, we visited St. Jude.1 It’s a powerful and strange feeling to see even a piece of someone who lived thousands of years ago.
But of course, as Jesus tells us, “[God] is not the God of the dead but of the living.”2 St. Jude is alive in Heaven, and we can ask him to pray for us just as much as we can ask our friends and family to do so.
That kind of connection across the millennia is exactly what Jesus is reminding us of in today’s Gospel.
Reading 1
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Wishing to determine the truth about why Paul was being accused by the Jews, the commander freed him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene. Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them.
Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees, so he called out before the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead."
When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the group became divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three. A great uproar occurred, and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party stood up and sharply argued, "We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"
The dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst and take him into the compound. The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome."
As Paul expected, he was arrested in Jerusalem. And just like in Corinth, he uses his Roman citizenship to make sure he gets a trial by a Roman official.
The Roman commander doesn’t know the theological differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but Paul sure does, because he’s both a Jew by birth and a Roman by citizenship. So he pits the two groups against each other.
As the brawl breaks out, the commander pulls Paul to safety. Back in prison, Jesus visits Paul and tells him he was saved so he can go to Rome.
You know, the place he’s going to be martyred. It’s kind of an out-of-the-frying-pan, into-the-fire situation.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you."
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
According to the Apostle’s Creed, Jesus died and descended into Hell. He rose on the third day, because the ancient Jews believed the body would begin to decompose (corrupt) on the fourth. God did not allow Him to undergo corruption, and instead, raised him up, showed Him the path to life.
But this is a type of miracle that God doesn’t reserve just for His Son. Many saints have been blessed with incorruptibility:
We tend to think of the Old Testament prophesying events of the New, but miracles continue to happen. On God’s time, how God chooses, with God’s grace, but they still happen.
Alleluia
Jn 17:21
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May they all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that the world may believe that you sent me, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Apostles can’t spread the Gospel without God’s help. Belief flows through them, not from them, to the rest of the world (including us).
Gospel
Jn 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."
Jesus is praying for us. Isn’t that amazing?
The world has strayed, and continues to stray, from God. But Jesus wants to bring us back. That’s why he taught the disciples. He teaches them, they tell their disciples, who spread it around the world and across the generations.
That’s how God’s love flows, from person to person, in an endless chain. We’re meant to be a part of that chain.
Sorry, they don’t allow pictures!