Tuesday May 18

SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER

 

CARRYING OUT ONE’S MISSION

 

Introduction    

In strikingly parallel ways, both Paul and Christ speak of their mission they have carried out – Christ with absolute certainty, Paul, knowing his limitations, to the best of his abilities. Paul knows that trials are awaiting him, but led by the Holy Spirit who guided his life, he will go ahead, even when he does not know what is awaiting him. Jesus has given the best of himself to make the Father known to all. He prays that they may all be one.

 

Opening Prayer

Lord, our God,
your Son, Jesus Christ,
carried out the mission you had given him,
without fear and in all faithfulness to you.
God, give us a bit
of his sense of mission.
Give us the strength of the Spirit
to speak your Word as it is,
bold and demanding,
without compromising or giving in
to the changing moods and fashions of the day.
And may our lives be like an open book
in which people can read your Word.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.

 

Reading 1: ACTS 20:17-27

From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
“You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace.

“But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 68:10-11, 20-21

(33a)Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Alleluia:  JN 14:16

Alleluia, alleluia.
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: JN 17:1-11A

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.

 

Intercessions

–   For the Church, that the Spirit may help it carry without compromise or hesitation, the task of making Christ’s name known in today’s world, we pray:

–   For our Christian communities, that the Holy Spirit may help us to keep and live the Gospel as Good News, we pray:

–   For all and each of us, that the Spirit may make us more aware that we belong to Christ and that Christ loves us deeply, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we sit at the table of Jesus
and through him, we are one with you.
Make us deeply aware
that Jesus has given us
the people around us
to make your name known to them.
Help us to care for them
because they belong to you
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord, our God,
we pray you today
for a deep sense of mission.
Through the Spirit of your Son,
give us the courage
to accept the challenge
of being responsible for our brothers and sisters.
Let your Son encounter people through us
and break to them the bread
of your Word and your life.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

With Jesus and like Paul, may we say with gratitude that we have carried out our task in life, the work God gave us to do, and may God forgive us where we failed. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

After the “Farewell Address” the Gospel of John presents us with the prayer of Jesus to the Father, known as “priestly prayer.” The context of this prayer is one of the most solemn moments in the life of Jesus. He delivers it at the Last Supper, immediately after the “Farewell Speech” and immediately before the passion.

Jesus is aware that his earthly mission is coming to an end. For this reason, Jesus “raising his eyes to heaven” asks that his mission reach its definitive fulfilment with the glorification of the Father.
We must remember that John was not attempting to record the chronicle of events in his Gospel. He makes use of an overheard conversation between Jesus and his Father, to educate and to motivate the members of his own believing community. These words are the words of the Disciple, who had known Jesus personally, who had been privileged to share many of the intimate thoughts and words of Jesus.
A little earlier in the Discourse, Jesus had encouraged the disciples to ask God for what they desired: In fact I assure you that the Father will give you in my name anything you ask of him. The point of their asking was not to inform an otherwise absent-minded God, but to sensitise themselves to their deeper desires. After the discourse, Jesus gives his own example – by praying to the Father.
Through his prayer, Jesus reveals to the Father his deepest desires and thereby, more consciously, motivating himself to face his impending death with unflinching determination. In the process, Jesus’ prayer would make clear to the readers the fire burning in his heart. The signs that he had worked, the dialogues and discussions in which he was involved, and the discourses that he had given were all done with the purpose of making the Father known and glorifying the Father.
The Lord’s Prayer that we read in the Gospels of Mathew and Luke finds a much more personalised version here in John. Instead of saying “Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is heaven,” John would prefer to use the words as: I have glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
The members of John’s community, who were in the midst of persecution and exclusion, would have drawn assurance and comfort from this words of prayer that Jesus makes. Is it not comforting to learn that Jesus himself prays on our behalf to the Father?