Gospel Lectio Divina for The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Ascension - May 21, 2023
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
READ
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
MEDITATE
Now glorify me, Father, with you . . .
We read this passage shortly after Ascension Thursday. Jesus is not bashful in his request. He is asking God the Father to glorify him. Said in any other context by any other person, this request would sound vainglorious. But it is said with God’s plan in his mind. Jesus’ ascension was a historic event. It was the perfect ending to a life lived perfectly. It was proper for the Father to glorify Jesus by taking him up into heaven as he did at the end of his time on earth. Jesus gave glory to the Father through his entire life. God the Father, at times, gave glory to him as well. At his baptism and at the Transfiguration are some examples that come to mind. This relationship between the Father and the Son can be indicative of the relationship God wants with us. God does not want to receive all the credit, even though all the credit is due to him. If we acknowledge him, he will acknowledge us. If we profess that Jesus is Lord to others, Jesus will acknowledge us before the Father. God does not want to simply glorify himself. He wants to lead us to the truth, and whenever we live our lives according to the truth he will lift up our name.
You may have experienced this personally. When you give glory to God’s name in a pure, genuine, and honest manner, it’s usually probably only a matter of time before hearing about the way your words touched someone’s life or changed their outlook. The person may have expressed their appreciation for your witness because you served as a conduit to God’s truth.
So, while it may sound self-interested for Jesus to say, “Glorify me”, this prayer to the Father is just another way of saying “Thy will be done”, because whenever Christ is glorified, that glorification is illuminating the Way and the Truth.
With the glory that I had with you before the world began.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. God did not create the world out of need. He could have lived–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–in perfect relationship with himself for all of eternity. But it is the nature of love to diffuse itself, to give life, to give of itself and bring forth something new. Creation reflects the character of God because it is a gift. God is loving and giving, and to remain in existence alone would have been sufficient for God, but it would have gone against his giving nature.
Here, Jesus is asking to return to the right hand of his father. It is time for him to return to the place where it all began. What is seen as a perpetual fallen existence to us is seen as just a bump in the road by God. Not only our whole lives, but the entire history of the world will fade away. Then we will return to the Father just as Jesus did. This life will seem like nothing more than a dream. When we dream, sometimes the dreams are good, sometimes they are bad. Sometimes our dreams are just weird. It’s because for right now we see everything in a haze, but when we return to the Father, we will see everything clearly. Our eternal life in the Father’s presence will be to this life as this life is to a dream. Eternal life will be the most real, clearest experience we ever had. It will be as it was with the Father and the Son before the world began.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me
A single human soul is worth more than all the stars in the universe. One human heart is larger than all the galaxies. They are worth more and bigger because they are eternal and God dwells there. No place in all of physical existence can contain God. But God asks us if he can enter into our hearts and souls. He willingly confines himself in the tabernacles across the world, in wafers of bread, and within our hearts. This is what love does. It sacrifices itself over and over again to prove our worth. Jesus did not bother praying for the world because he knew it would all pass away. But for us . . . for us . . . he gave up his life. For our priceless hearts and souls, he came down from heaven, lived, suffered, and died to convey to us our great worth. When the devil offered him the world, he refused it because to him it was worth nothing compared to us. And he knew that if he chose the world, he would forfeit our souls. Jesus did not have to choose us over the world but thank God he did.
PRAY
Dear heavenly Father,
You are here for us, as you have been since the beginning of time. You created us out of love, and keep us in existence out of love. You did not have to choose to love us. But love is a mysterious thing. Despite all the reasons we do not deserve it, your love for us does not change because you know the worth that is intrinsically within each one of us. Thank you for this unconditional love. Thank you for never giving up on me. Forgive me for the many times I have failed to see the truth. When I glorify you, lift up my name so all who see it see the Way, the Truth and the Life offered in your Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
LISTEN
The language of God is very strange. Every language is strange, but the language of God is especially strange, as it has to be, because it speaks of deeper and bigger realities. Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are cloaked in esoteric, abstract terms and concepts. To those who do not know God, it all may sound foolish, but for those who have the Holy Spirit within them, the words of Sacred Scripture are the voice of God and the hope of eternal life. Do you hear him speaking to you as you read this Gospel? How do you hear him speaking to you now?
Kilby is a freelance writer from New Jersey and managing editor of Catholic World Report. He received his undergrad degree in humanities and Catholic culture from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. In addition to working with the Knights of the Holy Eucharist (knights.org), he has served as a journalist for Princeton Packet Publications, and the Trenton Monitor, the magazine for the Diocese of Trenton. Some of his published work can also be found in St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Herald (UK), and Catholic World Report. For the latter he is managing editor. Find more of his writing at ramblingspirit.com
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