On this Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost, the liturgy reflects on events that are on the threshold between past, present and the world to come. Stephen has a vision of Christ in glory, the book of Revelation steps out of time and Jesus in the gospel selection speaks of going to the Father, yet united to his living disciples. The ‘doorways’, holding past, present and future before us is one way to live as disciples in an ever-changing world.
The readings are available online here.
Acts 7:55-60
Luke’s account of the earliest days of the church often has a look back to what he wrote in his Gospel. Today is the account of the death of the first martyr, Stephen, who as he dies echoes the words of Jesus on the cross: ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ For a fuller understanding of Stephen’s role in the community, begin reading at chapter 6 of Acts. He was one of the seven chosen as ‘deacons’ to see that the community’s care for its poorer members was well and fairly carried out. But early on, he seems to have taken on the role of healer and preacher as well, and it was his success in this that aroused the anger of the Jewish authorities. Luke reports the long speech he gave, drawing in the Old Testament accounts to show the authority of what Jesus came to teach and do. Because of Stephen’s view that Christ has superseded the Temple, he was accused of blasphemy and a lynching was carried out by stoning.
As he was dying, he was given a vision of Jesus in the full glory of God the Father.
Psalm 96/97:1-2, 6-7, 9
This short psalm is one of those that takes the image of God as like a King, ruling over the earth and the full cosmos. It fits well with the visions of Stephen.
Apocalypse/Revelation 22:12-14. 16—17:20
These words are from the conclusion of the long – and often confusing to modern minds – last book of our Bible. It was written in the form called ‘apocalyptic’, aimed at giving encouragement to believers under threat. The book concludes with Jesus’ self-proclamation of the One from the beginning, and who is also the ‘end’ of time. The comparison is made with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in which the New Testament was written. The Alpha and Omega are on the Easter candle still burning in our masses. Various other images are used in the reading, one is to call Jesus he the ‘Morning Star’ which brings on the full light of day. The image of the Bride as the church draws on the Hebrew prophet’s image of God’s love for his people like a husband for his wife, and now the new people of God in Christ have that kind of close relationship. Jesus has ‘gone’ in his Ascension to the Father, but Christians are to expect a return that will fulfil this closeness, and ‘Come’ expresses the yearning for this to happen. In the meantime, our ‘thirst’ – our need for what sustains life – is answered by grace like flowing water, offered freely.
People in modern times seem not to have the sense of urgency felt by this fervent preacher, who names himself as John, nor the same eagerness for the Spirit to come. While we have work to do on earth, we perhaps need to regain that sense of expectation that all will be fulfilled at a coming time. We live in a world full of seeming unsolvable problems, but this book urges us to believe God is the answer and we need the faith and patience to trust in that.
John 17:20-26
This Evangelist has set at the Last Supper a long ‘discourse’ of Jesus speaking to his disciples before he goes to the cross. It is full of words of comfort, of strengthening and also the assurance that God would be sending in his place the ‘Advocate’ – the Holy Spirit. Now at the conclusion Jesus prays aloud to his Father, laying out in various detailed ways how the disciples are to be united just as the Father and Son are one. Jesus makes an important point for those who did not know Jesus in his lifetime, but all of us who have heard the Word through them and also come to believe are included in his prayer.
Some of the ideas can be compared to the opening ‘prologue’ of the Gospel, where Jesus is called the ‘Word’ which was in the beginning with God and sharing the nature of God. In that, the Word was said to take on human nature, and come to live among people in the world. Now with that fullness of his human nature, Jesus is ‘going back’ to the Father. Although the Holy Spirit is not named, as it was earlier in this chapter, there is a theology that describes the Spirit as the love between the Father and the Son. That gives to these promises a sense of a total immersion of our lives in the eternal loving relationship of the Trinity.
Words often pass quickly as we hear them at mass but, as Nicholas King SJ says in his translation of the New Testament, this prayer of Jesus is so profound we need to find a time to go over it ‘slowly and prayerfully’.
Joan Griffith