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Readings:
Acts 7:55–60
Psalm 97:1–2, 6–7, 9
Revelation 22:12–14, 16–17, 20
John 17:20–26
(In dioceses where Ascension is celebrated on Sunday, see also the reflection for the Ascension of the Lord.)
Jesus is praying for us in today’s Gospel. We are those who have come to believe in Him through the Word of the Apostles, handed on in His Church.
Jesus showed the Apostles His glory, made known the Father’s name and the love He has had for us from “before the foundation of the world.”
He revealed that He and the Father are one (see John 14:9).
Jesus is the “first and the last” (see Isaiah 44:6), the root of David (see Isaiah 11:10; 2 Samuel 7:12), as today’s Second Reading declares.
Wrapped in clouds and darkness as God was at Sinai (see Exodus 19:16), He is “the king . . . the Most High over all the earth,” as we sing in today’s Psalm.
Exalted at God’s right hand, as Stephen sees in the First Reading, the Lord calls to us through the Church, His Bride.
He calls us to “the tree of life,” to communion with God. This is the goal of His love, His saving purpose from all eternity—that each of us enter into the life of the Blessed Trinity and be “brought to perfection as one” with the Father and Son in the Spirit.
The story of Stephen, the first martyr, shows us how we are to answer His call.
Listen for the echoes of the Crucifixion: Stephen, like Jesus, sees the Son of Man in glory and dies with words of forgiveness and self-offering on his lips (compare Acts 7:56–60; Matthew 26:64–65; Luke 23:24,46).
We, too, are to commend our spirits to the Father, to pray and offer our lives in love for our brethren, awaiting His coming in judgment. We renew our vows in every Mass, coming forward to receive the gift of His life.
We answer His call by crying out a call of our own: “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
And in our communion we answer our Lord’s prayer: “That they may all be one, as You, Father are in Me and I in You.”
