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 week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 25 May 2025), and this Thursday is Ascension Day (29 May 2025).
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 16: 5-11 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 5 ‘But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary today (John 16: 5-11) continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel ((John 14: 1 to 17: 26), where Christ continues to prepare his followers for his departure, and reminds them of his promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: ‘And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement’ (verse 8).
Christ’s challenge, ‘yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” ’ (verse 5) seems strange because the disciples have asked this question earlier, not just once (see John 13: 36, 14: 5).
Perhaps Christ is saying: overwhelmed with ‘sorrow’ (verse 6), you are missing the main point: the coming of the Spirit. By leaving them, Christ is able to send the Spirit, the Comforter, ‘the Advocate’ (verse 7).
One thing the Spirit will do is show ‘the world’ (verse 8) that they are wrong on three counts:
• their idea of sin is incorrect (verse 9)
• the righteous were wrong about Christ Jesus: he is God’s agent (verse 10)
• he has defeated sin (verse 11)
This part of the ‘Farewell Discourse’ continues in our reading tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, this morning, considering today’s tense global political atmosphere, which has become so violent and filled with hatred, I wonder whether it is appropriate to take comfort in today’s reading, where Christ promises that the, Comforter, the Advocate, ‘will prove the world wrong … about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned’ (verses 7-11). Is it appropriate to ask who thinks he is the ‘ruler of the world’?
Robert Mickens, an experienced Vatican commentator, has written an interesting analysis of Pope Leo XIV and the Trump administration. He says is it is ‘encouraging that at a time when Planet Earth is on the brink of destruction, our new pope has chosen peace and unity in the world and within the Church as one of the fundamental goals of his pontificate.’
In his ‘Letter from Rome’ on Friday last (23 May 2025), Robert Mickens says Pope Leo XIV ‘has positioned himself to be a force for unity at a critical moment. This starkly contrasts with the cynical and self-serving agenda of Donald Trump, the recently re-elected US president, who has emerged as a significant source of division and hatred on the world stage.’
Robert Mickens writes, ‘As Trump continues to crassly revel in being a conduit for evil, Leo has expressed a desire to channel goodness, compassion, forgiveness, and love. These are all Christian virtues that Trump and his Catholic vice president, JD Vance, persist in mockingly dismiss as weakness, without any apparent sense of shame.’
We must live with Easter hope. The Collect gives thanks that ‘God our redeemer’ has ‘delivered us from the power of darkness.’
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 27 May 2025):
The Feast of the Ascension is on Thursday (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 was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 27 May 2025) invites us to pray:
Loving God, we pray for healing and reconciliation for Indigenous communities harmed by colonial violence. Help us restore dignity and build relationships rooted in justice.
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
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