Fr. Roger J. Landry

Notre Dame Parish, Manhattan

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

May 24, 2023

Acts 20:28-38, Ps 68, Jn 17:11-19

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/5.24.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were considered in today’s homily: 

* Today the Church continues to ponder the valedictory words of Jesus in the Upper Room and of St. Paul in Melitus that we began to consider yesterday. Jesus’ words were to the Father, but he said them aloud so that the apostles could hear them — and through them, we could hear them — and that we might “share [Jesus’] joy completely.” They were also given to us so that we might become Jesus’ glory through coming fully alive in him and so that the Father might be glorified in the Son by means of our having life and joy to the full . St. Paul’s words were to the presbyters of Ephesus, so that they could continue the work that St. Paul had laborered for “three years, night and day … with tears.” As we’ll see, St. Paul’s words were an echo of what Jesus prayed to the Father.

* Today Jesus stresses his relationship to the Father and to the world as well as the relationship he wants us to have to the Father and the world.

* He says that he’s one with the Father and he wants us to be as united to each other as the Father and the Son are united. We will focus on this more tomorrow. What joy we have from being in loving communion with God and each other!

* He stresses twice that he doesn’t belong to the world and we shouldn’t belong to the world, emphasizing that we do not belong to the world “any more” than he does. Those are extraordinary words. He says that we’re supposed to have the same relationship to the world that he does and that we shouldn’t belong to the world any more than he. What joy we have when we are not enslaved to the world!

* He asks the Father to consecrate us so that we might belong not to the world but to the Father just like he belongs to the Father, just as Jesus does. To be consecrated means to be cut off from the profane (sacer) to be with (con) God to such a degree that we share the mission the Father gave the Son. Jesus wants to cut us off from the world to be united to him so that united to him we might come out of love for the world to continue his work, so that the world might be saved. What joy we have to belong to the Father like Jesus does!

* The way we will be consecrated to the Father is “in the truth” of his word. He is the Truth. He is the Word made flesh. To be consecrated in the truth means that we remain in him. It also means that we earnestly seek to remain in him through his Word, that we listen to his words as words to be done, words that help us to enter more deeply into the communion of God. That means we are “living the truth” and not attached to the world and the prince of this world, who is the father of lies. What joy we have because of the gift of God’s word, to know it, to live by it, to trust in it!

* To be consecrated means to belong to him, the Word made Flesh, to such a degree that we share his mission. His sending us into the world just as the Father sent him can only happen when we’re consecrated as a part of his Mystical Body, when we bring into the world the truth of his word. Pope Francis says famously in his exhortation The Joy of the Gospel that we evangelize precisely because of the joy we have in our relationship with God, something we cannot keep to ourselves. We know the different Jesus makes and we want others to experience that same joy.

* He asks the Father to protect us, just as Jesus himself sought to protect us in the Father’s name. He says that the world will hate us because, like him,