SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Where the Solemnity
of the Ascension of the Lord is transferred to the 7th Sunday of
Easter, the Mass readings are for the Ascension. See the menu of Solemnities
and Holy Days for the Solemnity of the Ascension.
Readings:
Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26
Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20
1 John 4:11-16
John 17:11-19
Abbreviations: NAB (New American Bible), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: The Kingdom of the Church Continues
as One in Christ
After 2,000 years, the universal Church continues as One
Body in Christ. The paradox is that the sinless Bride of Christ that is the
Church is full of sinners, and yet she persists in faith and unity. The
Seventh Sunday's Liturgy dwells on the question of how, throughout the centuries,
the Church has survived in a world full of sin. Yet, despite the deficiencies
of individual members, she continues in love and righteousness as a holy people
who are One Body in Christ.
In the First Reading, we hear that the Apostles were determined to keep the central authority of the New Covenant Church intact. Jesus appointed the Twelve Apostles as a sign of the new Israel of the people of God (Gal 6:16, CCC 877). Therefore, when the defection and death of the traitor, Judas Iscariot, reduced the number of Apostles to eleven, Peter set about to select a replacement. Believing in organized religion means believing in authority (the word "religion" means "to tie, fasten, bind, or to gather up, treat with care"). God ordained a central authority for a people united with Him in a covenant relationship beginning with the twelve Israelite tribes of the old Sinai Covenant. That central authority was carried over into the New Covenant in Christ when Jesus chose and later ordained His Twelve Apostles. He gave the twelve spiritual fathers of the new Israel the power to "bind and loose" sins (Mt 18:18; Jn 20:22-23). He also gave St. Peter the power as His Vicar (chief steward of His earthly Kingdom) to lead the flock of God's Kingdom and gave him the authority to nourish them with the truth of His word (Mt 16:17-19; Jn 21:15-17).
In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist testifies to the immensity of his love for God, whose kindness is without limits and who forgives His people's sins. He also acknowledges that God rules over all creation from His heavenly throne, and he invites the angels and the saints from every generation of God's covenant people to bless the Lord God.
In the Second Reading, we discover what keeps the Church unified down through the centuries: love expressed in obedience to Jesus's command to love both God and our neighbor. God abides in us, and we remain in God IF we continue to demonstrate our love for God and our brothers and sisters in the human family. As St. John urges us to remember, God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him (1 Jn 4:16b).
At His Ascension, Jesus established His throne in Heaven, as we sing in today's Responsorial Psalm. But the Kingdom over which He rules includes His earthly Kingdom of the Church. In union with Christ, the priesthood of the faithful (both the ordained and the laity) in His earthly Kingdom continues His mission to bring the Gospel message of salvation to humanity. Jesus's ordained ministerial priesthood continues to minister over His Eucharistic table and the other Sacraments that nourish the Church on the journey to eternity in the heavenly Kingdom.
At the conclusion of His Last Supper Discourse, Jesus offered His prayer for the Church in the Gospel Reading. Knowing the temptations His disciples will face to reject Him in favor of the secular world, Jesus prays that God will keep them safe from those temptations and the contamination of sin in the world. He prays that they will persevere, remain faithful to the Father's commandments and that their bond to each other will be a unity that reflects the oneness of the Most Holy Trinity. Jesus offers this same prayer for His disciples in every generation and for those of us who struggle to overcome the world's temptations in our faith journeys every day. Jesus prays that His disciples in every age of the Church, including you, may live in His truth and be sanctified (made holy) by their faith in Him.
The Church teaches: "Believers who respond to God's word and become members of Christ's Body, become intimately united with him: 'In that body the life of Christ is communicated to those who believe, and who, through the sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his Passion and glorification. This is especially true of Baptism, which unites us to Christ's death and Resurrection, and the Eucharist, by which 'really sharing in the body of the Lord, ... we are taken up into communion with him and with one another'" (CCC 790, quoting from Lumen Gentium 7, Romans 6:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 12:13).
The First Reading Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26 ~ The Continuation
of the Twelve
15 Peter stood up in
the midst of the brothers; there was a group of about one hundred and twenty
persons in the one place. 16 He
said, "My brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit
spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the
guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He
was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. [...]. 20a For
it is written in the Book of Psalms: [...] 20c
'May another take his office.' 21 Therefore,
it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord
Jesus came and went among us, 22 beginning
from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become
with us a witness to his resurrection." 23
So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as
Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they
prayed, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you
have chosen 25 to take the place in
this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place." 26 Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell
upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven Apostles.
Notice in the First Reading that Peter was in charge and his authority unchallenged. Peter was leading the community and making the decisions. He was Jesus's designated successor as the leader of the Church:
there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons
in the one place.
Significantly, 120 of the Christian community were praying
together in the Upper Room. The Jewish Mishnah: Sanhedrin, 1.6
records the necessity of a minimum of 120 people to form a legitimate
Synagogue. Therefore, according to Jewish custom, they were a legal community.
16 He said, "My
brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke
beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for
those who arrested Jesus.
The words "the Scripture had to be fulfilled" are Luke's testimony
that divine will was working in these events. The Jews believed that King David
was a prophet (Acts 2:29-30), and in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus refers to David's
prophecy of the Messiah in Psalms 110:1 (Acts 2:30-31). Also see other
references to the prophetic character of the Psalms (Lk 20:41-44; 24:44;
Acts 1:20; 2:29-30; 13:33; 28:25,
and Rom 1:2). The Psalms, like all Scripture, are
understood to be prophetic, and therefore can be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. On
Resurrection Sunday, Jesus instructed His disciples concerning everything written
about Him "in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms" destined to
be fulfilled (Lk 24:44).
The reference Peter makes is probably to Psalms 41:10
in the Greek Septuagint: Even the friend who had my trust, who shared my
table, has scorned me (in some translations, listed as 41:9).
Peter said: 17 "He was numbered among us and was
allotted a share in this ministry. [...]. 20a For it is written in the Book of Psalms: [...] 20c 'May another take his office.'"
That Judas was "numbered" or "counted" among the Twelve recalls
Luke 22:3 ~ Then Satan entered into Judas, the one surnamed Iscariot, who
was counted among the Twelve. That Judas "was allotted a share in this
ministry" reminds us of the twelve tribes of Israel and their share of inheritance
in the Promised Land. It is also reminiscent of the share or portion allotted
to God's priestly ministers (Num 18:21-26). The portioning out of the land of
Israel to the tribes was determined by lot as were the priestly towns
(Num 16:14; 26:55; 33:53) and the assignments for the priests in the daily worship
services (Lk 1:9; Mishnah: Tamid, 3:1; 5:2).
The complete quote in Acts 1:20 is: For it is written in the Book of Psalms: 'Let his encampment [camp] become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.' And: 'May another take his office.' These passages are from the Psalms of David, but Luke has altered the first quotation to be in the singular instead of the plural to fit Judas better ("Let his camp" instead of "Make/let their camp"). See the more complete passages below (the part of the underlined quotes are in the Acts verses; LXX refers to the Greek translation of the Old Testament):
The event taking place in our Acts passage is not more than ten days before the Jewish Feast of Pentecost and the coming of the "Advocate" Jesus promised to send His Church (Jn 15:26-27). The length of time between the Feast of Firstfruits when Jesus rose from death and the Feast of Pentecost was fifty days (as the ancients counted with Resurrection Sunday of the Feast of Firstfruits counting as day #1). Jesus was with the Church for forty days from His Resurrection to His Ascension (Acts 1:3).
Peter appears to have an urgent desire to replace Judas before the coming of the Holy Spirit to return the number of Apostles to twelve. His decision signifies that he understood the symbolic significance of the Twelve's leadership among the disciples and for the redeemed Israel of the New Covenant Church. He has understood that the New Covenant Church is a reconstituted Israel. The Kingdom of Israel was "fathered" by twelve tribes in the Theophany at Mt. Sinai. Therefore, so should be Church of the newly redeemed Israel have a full apostolic council of Twelve spiritual fathers when God comes again to dwell among His covenant people (see Lk 22:30).
In the significance of numbers in Scripture, twelve is the number of "divine perfection in government." Jesus has related the importance of the number twelve to the restoration of the new/redeemed Israel from the beginning of His ministry in His selection of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus also linked the twelve tribes physically fathered by twelve men to His Apostles and the importance of the number twelve in Luke 9:17 and 22:30. Judas Iscariot's defection shattered the symbolic integrity of the group. Judas not only sinned against Jesus but also against his apostolic office. They must fill his office before the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Twelve of the new Israel must be present at the birth of the Kingdom of the Church, just as the twelve tribes of Israel were present at the birth of the Kingdom of Israel at Mt. Sinai. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, it will no longer be necessary to maintain the number twelve. The apostolic office of the Magisterium will grow with the growth of the Church.
Notice that Peter decides the qualifications for the office. The candidate had to witness the full extent of Jesus's ministry: from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Jesus' baptism by St. John the Baptist, continuing to Jesus's resurrection appearance to the Apostles and disciples, and witnessing His Ascension. The two candidates proposed and accepted by Peter were the disciples Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias.
There were two men in the New Testament with the surname Barsabbas:
26 Then they gave
lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the
eleven Apostles.
Since the Holy Spirit had not yet come to the Church, they
used the Old Covenant method of determining God's will through the drawing of
lots (see Ex 33:7; Lev 16:8;
Num 26:55; 33:54; 1 Sam 14:41;
Josh 19:1-14; Mic 2:5;
Jonah 1:7-8 and Lk 1:9). The lot selected Matthias to replace Judas
Iscariot, and the number of Apostles was again twelve.
Casting lots was a way of determining the will of God before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. After Pentecost, all such decisions were determined by prayer and discerning the will of the Holy Spirit for the Church locally and universally, a tradition that continued in the authoritative leadership of the Church. The council of "the Twelve" was only in the beginning, and the number of the Apostles' disciples, the Church's first bishops, continued to grow as the Church expanded across the face of the earth, fulfilling the mission Jesus gave them at His Ascension (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). Matthias is not mentioned again in the New Testament. His Hebrew name means "gift of the Lord." According to legends and apocryphal writings, he preached in Jerusalem, where he was martyred by stoning. His saint's day commemoration is May 14th, and he is the protector of engineers and butchers.
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20 ~ The Lord's
Throne in Heaven
The response is: "The Lord has set his throne in
heaven" or "Alleluia."
1 Bless the LORD; O
my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Response:
11 For as the heavens
are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear
him. 12 As far as the east is from
the west, so far has he put our transgression from us.
Response:
19 The LORD has
established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. 20 Bless the LORD, all you his angels, you
mighty in strength, who do his bidding.
Response:
The superscription attributes Psalm 103 to David. In the previous psalm, David pleaded for help when he was at the point of death (110:11, 24), but now he thanks his Lord for restoring him. He begins by inviting himself, from the depth of his soul, to bless the Lord (verses 1-2), and in verses 11-12, he testifies to the immensity of his love for God whose kindness is without limits and who forgives His people's sins. In verses 19-20, David acknowledges God rules over all creation from His throne in Heaven and invites the angels and the saints from every generation to bless the Lord God.
The Second Reading 1 John 4:11-16 ~ God Dwells in Us
11Beloved, if God so
loved us, we also must love one another. 12
No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in
us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and
he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. 14 Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his
Son as savior of the world. 15 Whoever
acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. 16 We have come to know and to believe in the
love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God
and God in him.
Here is the answer to the question, "What has given life to the Church over the centuries?" The love of God and neighbor has sustained the Church down through the generations of the people of God. God abides in His Church and His Church in God when Christians obey Jesus's command to abide in love (Jn 15:9-17). There are four Greek words for "love." The word Jesus continually uses for His love for us and the love we must show to others is from the noun and verb agape, meaning "spiritual love." However, Jesus redefined agape love in dying for the salvation of humanity as self-sacrificial love.
The force that binds us in agape love is God the Holy Spirit, whose outpouring upon the Church we will celebrate next week when we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church on the Jewish Feast of Weeks/Pentecost. It is the mysterious force of the Holy Spirit that fills and indwells every baptized Christian and the whole community of the faithful in the celebration of Christ in the Eucharist. As we pray in Eucharistic Prayer II: "May all of us who share in the Body and Blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit."
The Gospel of John 17:1, 11-19 ~ Jesus' Prayer to the
Father for His Church
71:1 Lifting up
his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: [...] 11 "And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the
world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you
have given me so that they may be one just as we are one. 12 When I was with them I protected them in your
name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none (in the Greek = not one)
of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. 13 But now I
am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy
completely. 14 I gave them your
word, and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world any more
than I belong to the world. 15 I
do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the
evil one. 16 They do not belong to
the world any more than I belong to the world. 17 Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I sent them
into the world. 19 And I
consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth."
"Son of destruction," literally "son of perishing" (verse 12), is also translated as "son of perdition." The term only appears in John 17:12, where Jesus refers to Judas Iscariot as "the son of perishing" (or "perdition") and in 2 Thess 2:3 where St. Paul refers to the Antichrist. In Christian theology, the word "perdition" refers to a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unpenitent person passes after death.
11 "And now I will
no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to
you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me so that they
may be one just as we are one*.
Verse 11 gives us the sense that Jesus has already begun His
walk to Calvary. Contrast Jesus's statement: I am no longer in the world,
with what He said in verse 13: I speak this in the world. The statements
seem to contradict each other; however, the key to understanding Jesus's
meaning may be that in both verses, Jesus says He is coming to the Father. Some
ancient manuscripts add: I am no longer in the world, yet I am in the world,
which seems to unite verses 11 and 13, expressing the concept of Jesus in a
state of transition to the Father.
Jesus makes a petition to the Father in 11b, saying, "Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. Knowing the temptations the disciples will face to reject Him in favor of the world, Jesus prays that the disciples will be kept safe from those temptations and the contamination of sin in the world. He prays that they will persevere, remain faithful to the Father's commandments and that their bond to each other will be a unity that reflects the oneness of the Most Holy Trinity (see Jn 10:30).
In His prayer, Jesus repeats the word "one" a significant seven times in the literal Greek text in verses 11, 12, 21 (twice), 22 (twice), and 23. Our English translation repeats the word "one" twice in verse 11 for clarity, but only once in the original Greek text. This seven times repetition stresses the spiritual perfection found in the unity of the Church—the ONE Body of Christ.
| 1. John 17:11 | that they may be one just as we are |
| 2. John 17:12 | I have watched over them, and not one was lost |
| 3. John 17:21 | that all may all be one |
| 4. John 17:21 | As you are in me, Father, and I in you, that they also may be one in us |
| 5. John 17:22 | And I have given them the glory which you have given me, that they may be one |
| 6. John 17:22 | as we are one |
| 7. John 17:23 | I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in one and that the world may know that you sent me and loved me |
IBGE, volume IV, pages 305-6.
12 When I was with them, I protected them in your name, that you
gave me, and I guarded them, and none [not one] of them was lost except the son
of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. [...] = Greek
translation.
Jesus guided and protected
His disciples, keeping all of them except the one destined to be lost. The
Greek text reads: "except the son of perishing" or "son of perdition." This Semitic
expression is a play on the word "to perish" = not one has perished except
the son of perishing.
Jesus is speaking of Judas, the man from Kerioth. Iscariot means ish (man) Kerioth (town of his origin). The prophecy of Judas' betrayal of the Messiah appears in such Old Testament passages as Genesis 3:15; Psalms 41:9; 69:25; and Zechariah 11:12-13 (also see Acts 1:16-20 and Mt 27:3-10). During the Last Supper, Jesus quoted from Psalms 41:9 (Jn 13:17-18). The Greek passage reads: "He who eats bread with me lifts up against me his heel" (New Jerusalem Bible, note "l," page 1775; Interlinear Bible: New Testament, volume IV, page 295).
It is interesting that Judas Iscariot, the "son of perishing," carries the name of Jesus's tribe, the tribe of Judah or Yehuda (the name "Judas" is the Greek form of Judah and indicates one from the tribe of Judah). The Hebrew name Yehuda means "Yahweh's people." There is a double irony that Yahweh's people rejected the Messiah except for a faithful remnant who answered God's call. And, within the twelve Apostles, there was both a "loyal Judah" and a "traitor Judah." The faithful Judah, who believed in the Messiah, was the Apostle Judas, son or brother of James, also called Thaddaeus or Jude to distinguish him from the other Judas (see Mt 10:3; Mk 3:19; Lk 6:16; Acts 1:14). And the false Judah was the Judah/Judas from the Judean town of Kerioth.
In Fr. Raymond Brown's commentary on this passage, he points out that the literal reading of verses 13-16 in the Greek text is to keep the disciples safe from "the Evil One." Fr. Brown writes: "The word poneros, "Evil One," is capable of being translated as an abstract noun, "evil"; but on the analogy of 1 John 2:13-14, 3:12, and 18-19, a personal application to the devil is probably intended" (The Gospel According to John, page 761). The "evil one" is Satan, the prince of this world. Jesus will refer to this fallen angel as "the prince/ruler of this world" three times in St. John's Gospel (12:31; 14:30; 16:11) and tells us that the whole world is under the Evil One in 1 John 2:13-14. The petition in John 17:13-16 may be a parallel to Jesus's petition in the "The Lord's Prayer" found in Matthew 6:13 when He prayed free us from the Evil One, which is more often, but less accurately rendered "deliver us from evil."
Have you asked yourself if it possible to belong both to the world and Jesus Christ? This question, of course, addresses the great struggle. The answer is "No." In His Last Supper Discourse, Jesus has repeatedly made the distinction between belonging to God or belonging to the world; there can be no compromise between the two.
Notice that John 17:15 refutes the "Rapture theory" of some of our Protestant brothers who argue that Christians will be taken out of the world before the Second Advent of Christ, while the ungodly will be left behind. God doesn't want Christians out of the world to escape persecution and conflict; He wants the ungodly out! Our mission is to convert the world, not to flee from it. Jesus is praying that Christians should not be taken out of the world. He says that the destiny of God's covenant people is to inherit all things and that the ungodly will be disinherited and driven out; this is the consistent message of Sacred Scripture (in the Old Testament see for example Prov 2:21-22 and 10:30).
In Hebrew, the word for "salvation" is y'shuah (Strong's # 3444; yeshawah; also see Brown-Driver-Biggs Hebrew-English Lexicon). This word comes from the Hebrew root yasha (#3467), which means "to bring into a large, wide, open space." Through His gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, that is what Yahweh has prepared for His covenant people who will inherit the entire new earthly creation (Ps 37), restored to them as the New Eden. The vision of the new Heaven and earth is St. John's the last vision in the Book of Revelation: Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth. The former Heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more (Rev 21:1). It is the evidence of what Jesus told St. John in Revelation 21:5 ~ Behold, I make all things new.
In John 17:11-17, Jesus asks the Father to give His disciples four gifts:
In John 17:17-19, the Greek word hagiazo [hag-ee-ad'-zo] means "consecrate, sanctify, or to make holy," and the term aletheia [al-ay'-thi-a], the Greek word for "truth," repeats three times in the Greek text. It is another set of double threes. The word hagiazo indicates spiritual cleansing, but aletheia has power, as in John 8:32: truth will set you free (Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, vol. IV, page 277). The "truth" is both the active force of the consecration and the sphere into which God places the believer. When "consecrated by the Word," one is united with Christ, who is Himself the Truth (Jn 14:6, I am the Way and the Truth, and the Life). Jesus's prayer is that His disciples of every age, including you, may live in His truth and be sanctified (made holy) by their faith in Him as Lord and Savior.
Catechism References (* indicated Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Acts 1:22 (CCC 523*, 535*, 642*, 995)
Psalm 103 (CCC 304*); 103:20 (CCC 329)
1 John 4:11-12 (CCC 735*); 4:14 (CCC 457); 4:16 (CCC 221, 733, 1604*)
John 17:11 (CCC 2747*, 2749*, 2750*, 2815, 2849); 17:12 (CCC 2750*); 17:13 (CCC 2747*, 2749*); 17:15 (CCC 2750*, 2850); 17:17-19 (CCC 2812*); 17:17 (CCC 2466*); 17:18 (CCC 858*); 17:19 (CCC 611, 2747*, 2749*, 2812*); 17:17-20 (CCC 2821*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2021 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.