Today is the Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost. We heard a passage from Jesus’ farewell discourse in the liturgy. This took place after the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist shortly before his death.
Jesus prays for his disciples. Jesus prays also for his future disciples namely for all who come to faith in Jesus. This had to take place through the disciples’ preaching. Today it takes place through each and every one of us.
The main theme of today’s gospel is unity. Jesus prays for unity among Christians. The model of this unity among Christians is unity that Jesus experiences between himself and God the Father.
This discourse of Jesus for unity is almost like a beautiful love song. It is like a hymn on interpersonal relationship. Nowhere else do we read such an intensive and clear nurration about interpersonal relationships and the relationship between people and God as in the Gospel of John, chapter 17.
Jesus says: “As you are in me and I in you, that they may be one.” “They may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me.“
Jesus loves his disciples. Jesus loves the world too. It is with the same love Jesus experienced from the Father.
Jesus wishes that people believe in God the Father and in Jesus. Jesus wishes also that the world recognizes God the Father, and that everyone sees and experiences the glory of Jesus. All these took place after the supper just before the arrest, judgement and crucifixion.
But the season to remember the passion of Jesus is over. Even the season after the resurrection of Jesus is also over with the ascension of Jesus. Today we are experiencing the small period between the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It was a smaller period of anxiety, joy and hope for the desciples of Jesus.
After the event of Pentecost, the disciples acted exactly as Jesus desired. They proclaimed the message of Jesus, traveled to different countries of the world, baptized many people, and founded the Church on every continent.
But unity in the world and unity among Christians remain a wish and a hope and a request to God. Christians throughout the centuries have been more interested in discussing how they understood Jesus and God, asserting their own experiences and understandings and rejecting those of others. We have never learned to believe that our own experience is influenced by many external things and cannot convey a complete truth. When our own experience, together with the experiences of our fellow human beings, form a common experience, then there is a commonality in which we can experience the truth. Therefore, it is important that our own experiences and beliefs always leave room for the experiences and beliefs of our fellow human beings.
Not only in matters of faith, but also in everyday matters, it is an important rule not to immediately impose one’s own beliefs and violate the beliefs and experiences of our fellow human beings, but rather to make room for the experiences and beliefs of our fellow human beings. Only with such openness will we be able to achieve the unity and love among us human beings for which Jesus prayed fervently.
Next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit. During these days we pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. We wish and pray that let the Spirit come upon us just as he descended upon the apostles. Just as the Holy Spirit encouraged the apostles to proclaim the Gospel, we can hope that the Holy Spirit will encourage us to work for unity, openness, and tolerance among people.
The last sentence of the Gospel of Matthew is the following words of Jesus: “I will be with you always, until the end of the world.” This is our wish and our hope, that Jesus will always stay with us, see us and give us strength and courage to be open and tolerant towards all people.
Fr Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS