The readings for Seventh Sunday of Easter may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052123-Sunday.cfm
In today’s gospel passage from the evangelist Saint John, we hear Jesus praying to God the Father.
We don’t hear Jesus pray too many times in the Gospel,
though we know He did so frequently,
This prayer has been referred to for centuries in the Church as the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus.
This prayer is only about 650 words, slightly more than this homily.
It takes only 3 minutes and 30 seconds to read it aloud.
But it’s said it would take all of eternity for us to fully understand it.
It comes at the end of a lengthy address by Jesus to His disciples,
where He is preparing them for what it will be like after He leaves them.
He’s preparing them for life and ministry on their own.
It’s not an easy time for the disciples.
They left everything to follow Jesus.
And now He is leaving them.
But, Jesus doesn’t leave the disciples hanging.
He focuses their attention on how to have confidence and hope,
even in the face of his imminent departure from them.
Jesus does this by praying to the Father.
He doesn’t pray that it will get easier for them.
He doesn’t pray that they won’t encounter challenges or struggles.
Jesus doesn’t even pray that their enemies will be defeated.
What Jesus asks for them is hope and strength.
But here’s the thing.
In the prayer, Jesus was not only interceding for them.
He was also interceding for future generations of disciples, including you and me.
In this prayer, Jesus prays that we may have eternal life.
That we may know God. That we may know Heaven.
This knowledge is not something we can get from taking a class,
or attending a lecture or by reading a book.
Eternal life is not a matter of time and space.
It’s the life of heaven.
And that life begins here on earth.
Eternal life comes not from knowing about God.
But knowing God. Having a real relationship with Him.
To really know Him.
And how do we know God?
By knowing Christ, who is God incarnate, God in the flesh.
So let’s make this personal.
Do you want to go to heaven?
Then you must want to know God,
because that’s what heaven is.
To know God and be with Him forever.
Eternal life is a love affair with the Trinity,
the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit.
Eternal life is the reason God became man,
The reason Jesus died on the Cross,
Eternal life is the main reason we are Catholic,
the reason we go to Church.
Today’s gospel makes it clear that eternal life is
about us having an intimate relationship with God.
To acknowledge God as the Father,
and Jesus as the one who reveals him;
and it means taking on the heart of Jesus,
His empathy, His courage, His universal love for all,
and his total obedience to the Father.
This means daily conversion from our sins,
and trusting in the power of sacramental grace to renew and sustain us always.
We are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus
and to love one another with the same selfless love that He demonstrated.
That’s a lot.
But as we reflect on Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer,
let us be reminded of the depth of His love for us,
And let us ask for His help to follow in His footsteps,
growing in our faith and love for one another,
And in our first hand knowledge of the Father,
by talking to Him, following Him, Listening to Him
and doing His Will.
Heaven, eternal life, knowing God is not something for later.
That life begins here on earth. Let it begin now.
