Alternate Option for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (B) 2021

 Alternate Option for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (B) 2021

When the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the following Sunday, the Second Reading and Gospel from the Seventh Sunday of Easter (see no. 60) may be read on the Sixth Sunday of Easter.

Reading II: 1 John 4:11-16

Beloved, if God so loved us,

we also must love one another.

No one has ever seen God.

Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,

and his love is brought to perfection in us.

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,

that he has given us of his Spirit.

Moreover, we have seen and testify

that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God remains in him and he in God.

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever remains in love

remains in God and God in him.

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Commentary on 1 1 Jn 4:11-16

As we look forward to the gift of the Holy Spirit, St. John’s letter follows his profession of God’s love with this instruction regarding how we must join with God’s love. “The testimony of the Spirit and that of faith join the testimony of love to confirm our knowledge of God. Our love is grounded in the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and the example of God's love for us. Christian life is founded on the knowledge of God as love and on his continuing presence that relieves us from fear of judgment.” [4]

CCC: 1 Jn 4:11-12 735; 1 Jn 4:14 457; 1 Jn 4:16 221, 733, 1604

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Gospel: John 17:11b-19

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:

"Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me,

so that they may be one just as we are one.

When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,

and I guarded them, and none of them was lost

except the son of destruction,

in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you.

I speak this in the world

so that they may share my joy completely.

I gave them your word, and the world hated them,

because they do not belong to the world

any more than I belong to the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world

but that you keep them from the evil one.

They do not belong to the world

any more than I belong to the world.

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world,

so I sent them into the world.

And I consecrate myself for them,

so that they also may be consecrated in truth."

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Commentary on Jn 17:11b-19

This passage is a continuation of the “High Priestly Prayer” started earlier in St. John’s Gospel (John 17:1-11a). This part of the prayer begins with a plea for unity between the Father and the disciples (note the reference here to Judas Iscariot as the “son of destruction"). Still speaking directly to God, Jesus again says he is going to the Father, and that the disciples should share his joy at this prospect. He then asks the Father to keep them safe from the poison of sin (similar here to the petition in the Lord’s Prayer) and to consecrate them in truth (defining truth as the Word). In this instance “but that you keep them from the Evil One,” it appears to refer specifically to the devil as opposed to some generic evil.

Clear reference is given here about how the world will receive these friends he sends into the world (“I gave them your word, and the world hated them”). This is why he asks at the outset: "Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.”

CCC: Jn 17:11 2747, 2749, 2750, 2750, 2815, 2849; Jn 17:12 2750, 2750; Jn 17:13 2747, 2749; Jn 17:15 2750, 2850; Jn 17:17-20 2821; Jn 17:17-19 2812; Jn 17:17 2466; Jn 17:18 858; Jn 17:19 611, 2747, 2749, 2812

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Reflection:

We look at the scripture passages given and seek the common theme that we can take with us. We look first at the story unfolding in the Acts of Apostles. This story finds the Apostles seeing God directing them in scripture (they quote the Psalms) to replace Judas who fell, bringing their number back to twelve. The Apostles apparently did this in a very democratic way by voting among themselves as to who would be chosen to take up the ministry. We note that this process is followed today in selecting successors to St. Peter. It is one of the few times when the Church uses this method of choosing those she calls to ministry.

We look next to Psalm 103 and are reminded that God established his Kingdom above all earthly kingdoms and principalities which are mere shadows of God’s Heavenly Home, the place where Christ the Lamb sits on the right side of the Father’s throne, looking down on all creation.

Next comes St. John, his Gospel, the anvil and his epistle, the hammer. The Great Commandment is beaten home as it is so often by the Evangelist. As deeply has he delved into the mind of Christ he kept coming back to that central theme, the reason Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world was to reveal how much God loves us. Jesus, in his life on earth pointed to so many actions and attributes that would bring us peace in this life. In the end, his example on the cross, his words of forgiveness all point to the same thing; God loves us and asks only that we love him and one another.

All of the scripture we have today finds that underlying theme. Why do the Apostles find it necessary to add one more to their number? Their principle role, given to them by Christ was to take the Good News into the world. That Good News was that God’s Heavenly Kingdom, mentioned in the Psalm, was there, real and available. Why, because God loves us and wants for us not only peace in this life but also in the next.

The Lord is praying for us in the Gospel. He is asking the Father to keep those to whom he most clearly showed his intent firm in their mission. He prays that the love of the Father, transmitted through the Son, might continue to grow in them that they might understand the depth of that love and find joy in the knowledge of it.

As we continue to celebrate the Easter of our joy, let us recall in the Eucharist we share his great love and how he invites us to remain in him and he in us.

Pax