Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (8 June 2025), or Whit Sunday. This is the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 25 May 2025), and is known in the Orthodox Church as the Sunday of the Blind Man (see John 5: 1-9, the alternative Gospel reading the Lectionary today).
Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, 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 14: 23-29 (NRSVA):
23 Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary today (John 14: 23-29) continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel.
Christ continues to prepare his followers for his departure. Judas, son of James, who is one of the Twelve in Saint Luke’s list of disciples, has asked Jesus how he will reveal himself to them but not to the world (verse 22).
Christ answers, but not directly. In the era to come, when the Father and Son come, separation between God and those who love him will no longer exist (verse 23). Loving Christ implies obeying him. The message Christ brings is ‘from the Father,’ who has sent Christ (verse 24).
Christ’s words will be complemented by the actions of the Holy Spirit (verse 26), who will be the Advocate, or helper and counsellor, to believers. He will cause the disciples to remember what Christ has said, and help them to understand the true significance of Christ’s words and deeds.
Christ gives his followers peace, but it is a very different gift from worldly gifts. In loving God, we come to know him. If they really knew Christ, they would rejoice at his coming departure. The Father has sent him into the world to do his will, so in that sense ‘the Father is greater than I.’ Christ has told them this so that when they see his manner of leaving, they ‘may believe.’
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 25 May 2025, Easter VI):
The Feast of the Ascension is on Thursday next (29 May 2025) and provides the theme for this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme is introduced today with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG:
The Feast of the Ascension is not simply about Christ's departure but a call for his disciples to continue his mission of restoring creation, justice, and care for all. When Christ ascended, he did not abandon His followers. Instead, he shared his exousia (authority, power) through the Spirit to carry on his work as voices of justice and stewards of creation. This ‘mission from below’ aligns with Sumak Kawsay/buen vivir (the good life) in Latin America, a vision of living in right relationship with all creation, and Moana theology in the Pacific, where everything is interconnected, everything is sacred. Both theologies invite us to return to ancestral wisdom, valuing the Earth as a living entity deserving of care.
We are called to be stewards of the Earth, the oceans, and those affected by climate change. Bien Vivir opposes colonial exploitation of God’s creation and advocates for respect toward Pachamama, the living earth (the territory we live in and provides identity to all of us). Rather than looking upward in passive expectation, the Ascension urges us to focus on the earth and act as agents of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
This feast is a story of commissioning, not departure. It invites us to live as reconciliation communities, embodying the gospel through care for creation because the earth belongs to God. In this way, we continue Christ’s mission, seeing Him live on through our work for the earth and its most vulnerable beings.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 25 May 2025, Easter VI) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
‘Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes’ (Matthew 7: 28-29).
The Collect:
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.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
may we thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
by the lakeside you renewed your call to your disciples:
help your Church to obey your command
and draw the nations to the fire of your love,
to the glory of God the Father.
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
