Gospel Reflection for 2nd June

The 7th Sunday of Easter

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Jesus prays for us!

We all pray to Jesus at some time or other! This is what we have been taught and shown since we were children. This is an ancient tradition and a very important thing to do. However, in the gospel this Sunday, Jesus prays for each of us!

Jesus prays for those in the gospel and us today with these profound words:

‘Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but for those also who through the words will believe in me. May they be one, 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.’

 This prayer is about several things. Firstly it is about the friends of Jesus and their mission. Jesus prays not only for them but also for all those who will hear the good news through them. This also applies to each of us today. As followers of Jesus today, he pray for us as we try our best to tell others about him through the quality of our daily lives.

This gospel is also about our relationship with Jesus and God.

This is no ordinary relationship; Jesus is praying for us that we will have the same quality of union with him as he has with God. Jesus prays;

‘…may they be one in us as you are in me and I am in you..’

This is most definitely is not a casual or temporary relationship. This repeats and echoes a phrase and wish of Jesus from earlier in the same gospel; ‘make your home in me, as I make my home in you.’(John 15.4).

Being a follower of Jesus is not about facts, information or knowledge; it is a about an intimate, personal and loving relationship. This is Jesus’ deepest wish and prayer for each one of us.

Lastly the prayer is cry for unity from Jesus. He prays that we may one in him as he is in God and God is in him.

Sadly, we only have to look in our home homes, at the news any evening, our communities, our country and the wider world to see that we are in fact not one in or with Jesus. We are divided and split along many different lines. There is class division, religious disagreements, racial tension, political rivalries, wars of all sorts and of course the gulf between rich and poor. Unfortunately, after all these years, this prayer of Jesus has not yet been realised. But we live in hope.

We all want the world to change, but do each of us want to change? This is the challenging question. If we want to be with Jesus and God, then we need to be one with each other here and now in this world. This is also what Jesus prays and wishes for.

There is a hymn that is often sung in churches a line of which tells us; ‘that they will know we are Christians by our love.’ Do people know that we are followers of Jesus by the way we speak to each other? Do people know that we are Christians by the way we treat each other?

This is the test of calling ourselves Christians. Thank God Jesus is praying for us; we need all the help we can get!

– Br Michael Moore OMI