Seventh Sunday of Easter, 5/16
For the last two Sundays we’ve heard Jesus exhorting us to remain in his love, to abide with him, to love one another as he has loved us. This week, he breaks from instructing us and ‘lifts his eyes to Heaven,’ speaking directly to the Father on our behalf. This is certainly not the first time that we see Jesus pray in the Gospels, but Jesus’ prayer today is unique, and it has a new intimacy to it.
In this prayer, we see his union with the Father on full display. Not just that they love each other, but that they are one. This is a beautiful glimpse of the eternal relationship which is the very fabric of who God is; trinitarian love in which there is no distance or deficiency. But the amazing thing here is that Jesus doesn’t simply display his relationship with the Father, he draws us into it. And we are invited in, not just as guests or spectators, but as true participants. “May they be one as you and I are one,” “May they share my joy completely,” “As you sent me into the world, so I send them.” These are not the pitying prayers of a distant God who feels bad for us, these are the sincere cries of a God whose whole heart and being is Love. In the very first lines of this Gospel, Jesus refers to us as gifts that he has been given by the Father. That is the humbling mystery and privilege of our existence: that we have been created as a gift of love; that God receives each one of us with joy as an invaluable treasure; and—even more incredibly—that he gives himself back to us, withholding absolutely nothing. Jesus gives us a lot of instruction throughout the Gospels for how to follow him, but we see today that it isn’t only up to us and our efforts—he is constantly pleading to the Father on our behalf, offering his perfect love to make up for the ways that our love falls short.
Today’s Gospel gives us a window into the perfect conversation of love eternally flowing between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we are not the awkward “third wheel” of this perfect relationship, no!!! Somehow, by God’s miraculous and astounding kindness, this is our relationship too, the relationship we were created for, which waits for us at every moment in the Eucharist, and which will be our constant joy someday in Heaven.
Jule Coppa, Faith Coordinator