GOD’S WORD

May 19, 2015 (Tuesday) 7th Week of Easter

1st Reading: Acts 20:17–27

From Miletus Paul sent word to Ephesus, summoning the elders of the Church. When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, how I served the Lord in humility through the sorrows and trials that the Jews caused me. You know that I never held back from doing anything that could be useful for you; I spoke publicly and in your homes and I urged Jews and non-Jews alike to turn to God and believe in our Lord Jesus.

But now I am going to Jerusalem, chained by the Spirit, without knowing what will happen to me there. Yet in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and troubles await me. Indeed I put no value on my life, if only I can finish my race and complete the service to which I have been assigned by the Lord Jesus, to announce the good news of God's grace.

I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom of God will ever see me again. Therefore I declare to you this day that my conscience is clear with regard to all of you. For I have spared no effort in fully declaring to you God's will.

Gospel: Jn 17:1–11a

Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come! Give glory to your Son, that the Son may give glory to you. You have given him power over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to all those you entrusted to him. For this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and the One you sent, Jesus Christ.

I have glorified you on earth and finished the work that you gave me to do. Now, Father, give me, in your presence, the same glory I had with you before the world began.

I have made your name known to those you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. And now they know that whatever you entrusted to me, is indeed from you. I have given them the teaching I received from you, and they accepted them, and know in truth that I came from you; and they believe that you sent me.

I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those who belong to you, and whom you have given to me. Indeed all I have is yours, and all you have is mine; and now they are my glory. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I come to you.“

Reflection:

Jesus glorified God in many ways: 1) he finished the work God gave him and revealed God’s power in the world. “God has visited His people.” (Lk 7:1-17); 2) through the cross, the apex of Jesus’ glorification of God, Jesus’ mission has been accomplished. At Judas’ betrayal, Jesus uttered, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him” (13:31). The crucifixion defines what glory is. (Craig R. Koester)

For many the cross is a symbol of suffering. Coming from Mass, a man once at home lifted up his wife. The woman asked, “Why?” The husband said he heard the priest saying to carry your cross. During the first two centuries of Christianity, the cross was an unpopular Christian iconography, because it portrays a shameful and gruesome way of criminal execution. It was only in the second centuries that cross came to be associated with Christ and became a sacred icon.

A little boy said that the cross is a “plus sign.” Indeed, we can glorify God as Jesus did through our cross. Per aspera ad astra (Through difficulties to the stars). The cross is sweeter after going through difficulties (dulcius ex asperis).