The Homily for Seventh Sunday in Easter Year C, The World Communications Sunday, 16th May, 2021

 The Homily for Seventh Sunday in Easter Year C, The World Communications Sunday, 16th May, 2021

Readings: Act. 7:55-60; Ps. 97; Rev. 22:12-14.16-17.20; John 17: 20-26

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike  Onyia.

WAITING FOR THE PROMISED PARACLETE IN FULFILMENT OF THE HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER OF JESUS

As we gather today the seventh Sunday of the Holy season of Easter, the Church celebrates the world communication Sunday which was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration. Communication as we know is a very important aspect of our faith. Because, our mission is to communicate to humanity what God has done for us through Christ our Lord. Prior to this event is Solemnity of the Ascension which we celebrated last Thursday, of which the Church waits prayerfully for the promised Paraclete. So the Church in this waiting disposition anticipate the promised Paraclete who will help her to communicate the message  of Christ to all humanity.

However, one of the difficult statements we don’t like to hear when we are expecting something great to come our way is the word “wait”. The word wait can be very unpleasant to the ears of anyone who is desperately in need of something. But often times, we have little or no option not to wait, and in life we have a lot of waiting to do. We wait for the day to break, we wait for the month to end, we wait for the traffic, we wait for our admission, interviews, jobs, husband, wife, children, we wait and wait and wait, in fact, waiting on God is a regular message of faith which we hear everyday. Waiting can really be difficult and uncomfortable, it can be suicidal for those who lack the virtue of patience. 

Nonetheless, good and great things are worth waiting for. Little wonder, we are called to wait for the fulfilment of the promise paraclete  of which  Jesus prayed for in his High Priestly Prayer at the Last Supper. This High Priestly prayer of Jesus is divided into three sections. First Jesus prayed for himself, in the second section he prayed for his disciples. 

The third section is what we have in our Gospel passage today where he prayed for all those who through the influence of his disciples come to believe in God and in him, of which each one of us belongs to those whom Jesus is praying for when he said in our Gospel passage today: “Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words will believe in me. May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.”

 

In this High Priestly prayer of Jesus, we heard the Lord Jesus asking the Father to sanctify his disciples in truth and oneness knowing the important of sanctity, truth and oneness in achieving their mission and goal. We can see the efficacy of this prayer of Jesus in the life and death of St Stephen in our first reading today. For Stephen filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed in prayer into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. This he witness before the members of the council saying: ‘I can see heaven thrown open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ Because of this witness they all rushed at him, sent him out of the city and stoned him. 

This event shows the sacrificial nature of our mission of bearing witness to our faith in the Lord. It can also be seen as an example of how communication in prayer is such an important aspect and part of our faith. For we cannot be true Christians unless we open ourselves to the Lord and communicate with him regularly in order to know his will for us and for others and by so doing dwell in his love and bear authentic witness of him to humanity. 

To understand this sacrificial nature of our mission Jesus in our second reading today said in his revelation to St. John: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Happy are those who will have washed their robes clean, so that they will have the right to feed on the tree of life and can come through the gates into the city of God”.

Little wonder, in this High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prayed for his disciples that the Father should take care of them in the midst of the evils in the world, that they should be one as he and the Father are one. He prayed that those who follow him may be drawn into the life of the Holy Trinity. For the Father sends the Son to humanity precisely so that the Son may draw all humanity into the relationship that exists between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So this prayer reminds us that our unity, our “oneness” is to be a sign to the world of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. And this shows us that prayer is a form of communication between us and God, whom we should love dearly and wait patiently for His will to be done in our lives.

This simply means, that we have to learn how to communicate regularly with God and wait patiently for his will to be done. We must learn to build the unity of which Christ prayed and this we do when we learn how to love and wait patiently with one another, especially with our loved ones, our friends, our family members and relatives, our spouses and others who are dear to us. We must learn how to wait patiently with life activities and the challenges and struggles that come with it.

Dear friends, as the disciples are waiting prayerfully for the promised Paraclete, we too are also called to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Holy Spirit especially in this coming Pentecost Sunday. We are called to go to the upper room of our hearts and conscience and wait patiently for the out pouring of the Holy Spirit that will help us to be well united as one family of God. We are called to prepare and wait on the Holy Spirit through the ongoing novena to the Holy Spirit. We are called to wait patiently for the fulfillment of God’s plan for each and every one of us. Though waiting may be difficult, but good and great things are worth waiting and prepared for.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, graciously hear our supplications,  as we wait patiently for the fulfillment of your promise, grant that when the Paraclete comes, may we be disposed to receive him as our Advocate and let him teach us what to do, how to do it, when to do it and give us the grace to do it properly through Christ our Lord. Amen.  Do have a grace filled Sunday celebration.