Seventh Sunday of Easter (Cycle C)
Acts 7:55-60
Psalms 97:1-2, 6-7, 9
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
John 17:20-26
Jesus is praying for us in today's Gospel. We are those who have come to believe in Him through the Word of the Apostles, handed on in His Church. Jesus showed the Apostles His glory, made known the Father's name, and the love He has had for us from "before the foundation of the world." He revealed that He and the Father are one (see John 14:9). Jesus is the "first and the last" (see Isaiah 44:6), the root of David (see Isai-ah 11:10; 2 Samuel 7:12), as today's Second Reading declares. Wrapped in clouds and darkness as God was at Sinai (see Exodus 19:16), He is "the king...the Most High over all the earth," as we sing in today's Psalm. Exalt-ed at God's right hand, as Stephen sees in the First Reading, the Lord calls to us through the Church, His Bride. He calls us to "the tree of life," to com-munion with God. This is the goal of His love, His saving purpose from all eternity - that each of us enter into the life of Blessed Trinity, be "brought to perfection as one" with the Father and Son in the Spirit. The story of Ste-phen, the first martyr, shows us how we are to answer His call. Listen for the echoes of the crucifixion: Stephen, like Jesus, sees the Son of Man in glory and dies with words of forgiveness and self-offering on his lips (compare Acts 7:56-60; Matthew 26:64-65; Luke 23:24,46). We, too, are to commend our spirits to the Father, to pray and offer our lives in love for our brethren, awaiting His coming in judgment. We renew our vows in every Mass, coming forward to receive the gift of His life. We answer His call by crying out a call of our own: "Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!" And in our com-munion we answer our Lord's prayer: "That they may all be one, as You, Father are in Me and I in You."