Reflection for 7th
Sunday of Easter Year A
(Acts 1:12-14; 1 Pet
4:13-16; Jn 17:1-11)
1.0. The Cenacle
It was almost a tensed moment as the apostles watched Jesus Ascend. After Jesus’ Ascension, they returned to the upper room (The Cenacle) where they were staying. It was a
solemn gathering as they devoted themselves to pray together with Mary the
Mother of Jesus. Thus prayer
became a way they expressed their hope in Jesus and His promise of the coming of the Holy
Spirit. By uniting in prayer, they expressed their unity in faith in Jesus
Christ. This also deepened their hope and love.
Furthermore, the beauty of this Cenacle of prayer shines out as the apostles gathered around Mary the Mother of
Jesus. She became for them the most living memory
of Jesus. How can you behold the face of Mary and not remember Jesus? The glory
of Jesus is alive in her!
2.0. The Hour of Jesus
“Father, the hour has
come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” Jesus prayed to the
Father that the hour to send down His glory has come. Let us meditate on the
timing of the glory! Think about how God who dwells in eternity has subjected
His glory to time in Christ Jesus.
The glory of God is greater than time, but in Jesus time can now contain God’s
glory! Thus, at the appointed time,
at the hour of salvation, Jesus invokes the glory of God. All flesh will share
in this glory and eternal life, and return to God the glory that is His through
Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Jesus is
that locus in time through
which we receive the glory of God. It
is the hour of Jesus and the glory of Jesus that we are called to share. “Father,
glorify me in your presence with the glory which I had with you before the
world was made.”
3.0. The Hour of Glory
The hour of glory for
us, therefore, is not in clock-time. It is the time of our encounter with
Jesus; the time we hear His words and obey his commandment of love, the time we
confess our sins and begin a new life, the time we receive Him warmly in the
Eucharist, the time we endure wrongs and forgive others, etc. This hour of
Jesus in our lives is equally the time we return glory to God. It is the moment
we witness to Christ. In fact, it is the moment we proclaim through our
endurance Jesus’ witness to the Father on the Cross. “I glorified you on earth,
having accomplished the work which you gave me to do.”
That is why the second
reading says, “Rejoice in so far as you share in Christ’s suffering, that you
may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” Hence, we must
dispose ourselves as in the Cenacle of prayer. Like the apostles gathered with
Mary, we should constantly invoke the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary in our daily prayers. When the appointed time came,
God sent His Son through a woman (Mary) (Gal 4:4). With the present challenges in
our family and social lives, we are hungry for a taste of God’s glory. If we
continue to devote our time and energy to prayer, our hour of glory will
come. In fact, it is already here as we move to encounter Jesus today. AMEN.
Fr Jude Nwachukwu,
C.Ss.R
Saints Peter &
Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Sunday May 24th,
2020.
