June 6, 2019 Thursday,
7th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 22:30; 23:6–11
Gospel: Jn 17:20–26
Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed, “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their word will believe in me. May they all be one as you Father are in me and I am in you. May they be one in us; so the world may believe that you have sent me.
“I have given them the Glory you have given me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity and the world shall know that you have sent me and that I have loved them just as you loved me.
“Father, since you have given them to me, I want them to be with me where I am and see the Glory you gave me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
“Righteous Father, the world has not known you but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. As I revealed your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I also may be in them?”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
An old woman complains about four men in her life. She rants: “Each morning I wake up with Mr. Will Power, then go to see John. Mr. Art Rhytis takes me from joint to joint, and at night, I sleep with a good massage from Mr. Ben Gay.” No she isn’t talking about real men but real sufferings in her old age.
Biological life deteriorates with time and brings untold sufferings. The good news is that Jesus can make all things new (Rev. 21:5), turns our sorrows into joy (Jer. 31:13) and wipes all tears dry even as we continue to suffer (Rev. 21:4). This good news is packaged in the glory that Jesus passed on to us (John 17: 22). How is this glory to be interpreted?
The word “glory” has something to do with suffering in Jesus’ conversation with Peter as narrated by John the Evangelist (John 21:15-18). In that conversation Jesus made Peter understand that his suffering would glorify the Father. He said to Peter: “…when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18). Then John the Evangelist made this parenthetic remark: Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God (John 21:19).”
“Glory” as used in today’s Gospel reading assumes the same relation with suffering. When Jesus said, “I have given them the Glory you have given me” (John 17:22), he was saying that he has given mankind the possibility of being glorified through sufferings. This is how Christ would make all things new in our lives, turn our sorrows into joy and wipe our tears away. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: [email protected].
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