Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (4 April 2026) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (24 May 2026), or Whit Sunday. Tomorrow is the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 9 May 2026).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 15: 18-21 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 18 ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.’
Today’s Reflections:
The Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary today at the Eucharist (John 15: 18-21) continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel.
Jesus has been urging the disciples to love all those around them as a sign of their love of him. In today’s Gospel reading, he warns them that there is no guarantee that they will be loved in return. If people hated such a loving person as Jesus so bitterly, his disciples cannot expect to be treated differently.
He explains the reason they will be hated is because they will refuse to identify themselves with the values and priorities of the secular world. They will reject materialistic greed and competitiveness, the scramble for status and power, the hatred, anger, violence and revenge that mark so many people’s lives.
The most terrible thing to happen to Christians is for them to be loved by that world; it is a sign they have become part of it: ‘I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you’ (verse 19).
Once again he reminds them that the servant is not greater than the master: ‘If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also’ (verse 20).
At times, it may be difficult to understand and accept this. Often I am upset when I hear back of how I have been spoken of pejoratively behind my back and out of earshot to friends I have long valued and cherished but who have since become distant. But that is personal. It ought to be more upsetting to hear about people suffering, in jail, tortured, deported or murdered simply because of their political, social or political views or because of their ethnic or cultural background.
Yet, when we look back in time, we can take pride in the religious martyrs of the past or the courageous heroes who sacrificed so much to win the democratic liberties and social freedoms we have today – rights and freedoms that we often take for granted but that are being eroded and whittled away in so many places these days.
I sometimes wonder whether those people who speak out find it worse to be ignored that to be silenced. And it is tragic when those who are demanding and campaigning for a better society and a better world find themselves under pressure, turn against one another and become divided and then ineffective, sometimes even descending into or even wallowing in a sense of righteousness and moral superiority.
In a similar way, it is more than disturbing to see the name of Christianity being hijacked in the world by leaders whose policies and decisions work against the love of God and the values of God’s kingdom: Trump setting up the so-called White House Faith Office headed by the phoney televangelist and prosperity theology proponent Paula White, while the Trump regime in its actions panders to the violence and the hatred of the far-right; Trump posting AI-generated self-images in which he takes the place of Christ; Vance having the temerity to try to lecture Pope Leo on Augustinian theology and the principles of the ‘just war’ theory; Hegseth holding prayer meetings in Pentagon and paraphrasing quotations from Pulp Fiction but claiming he is citing Ezekiel 25:17; Patriarch Kirill of Moscow making the Russian Orthodox Church beholden to the bidding of the Putin regime; Russian Orthodox soldiers are being told it is their Christian duty to wage ‘a holy war’ that slays Ukrainian Orthodox soldiers and civilians, all in the name of Russkiy Mir …
All this compromises our witness to the love of God for God’s people everywhere. When any of these things happen, people see the Church and Church figures as having failed the Gospel … and having failed the world.
As the Collect on the Eve of Easter VI this evening invites us to pray:
God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us
to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 9 May 2026):
‘Following God’s Lead’ provides the theme this week (3-9 May 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 52-53. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update from Father Thanduxolo Noketshe, Vicar of Saint Mary’s and Christ Church in Cayon, St Kitts & Nevis.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 9 May 2026) invites us to pray:
Heavenly Father, we give thanks for the wider Church of the Province of the West Indies. Bless the clergy and congregations to share your love, reach outwards, and glorify Jesus Christ through their faithful mission.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
your wounds declare your love for the world
and the wonder of your risen life:
give us compassion and courage
to risk ourselves for those we serve,
to the glory of God the Father.
Collect on the Eve of Easter VI:
God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us
to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
