The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods are a community of vowed Catholic women religious. Inspired by our foundress Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, we are passionate about our lives of prayer, education, service and advocacy.
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“This is what is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. … While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.”
Seventh Sunday after Easter
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”
Reflection
Today marks either the celebration of Ascension or the observance of the seventh Sunday following Easter. Thematically, the two gospel passages are commissioning believers, sending them forth to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
Both Gospels serve as transitions to Pentecost when the full power of the Spirit descends upon the community propelling them to proclaim the Word and be witnesses. One passage, Luke’s, is post resurrection; the other, John’s, is the part of Jesus’ farewell address in preparation for his death and resurrection.
Luke’s passage marks an end to the earthly presence of Jesus and identifies the Ascension as a distinct event separate from the Resurrection. It is a remembrance of what has taken place in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
This remembrance is followed by a clear message that the believers are being sent to spread the Word once the fulfillment of the promise of God. The Spirit that is coming will empower them to imitate Jesus in their lives and to proclaim Jesus the Christ in their actions and words.
John’s Gospel is part of Jesus’ farewell address to the community. It is at a time when the Johannine community was finding itself becoming somewhat isolated from the rest of the world of their time. In the verses just prior to those of our Gospel today, John’s Jesus, in praying to God, says “I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours … I have given them your word, and the world hate them because they do not belong to the world.” (Verse 14).
And Jesus converses on with the One he calls Father: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world.” (Verse 15). “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (Verse 18).
Yet, in verse 20 of today’s Gospel, Jesus continued prayer to God whom he calls Father, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe through your word, that ‘they all may be one.”’ Jesus will make the Word of God (Jesus/Love) known to all through those who know that God sent him into the world.
The reality of separation in the Johannine community of those receiving the word and those not, makes this positive approach to the world by Jesus to unity in the Word utterly remarkable for his hearers, as theologian Arthur Dewey claims in his book, The World in Time.
While speaking of his resurrection to come, Jesus is commissioning those who have been his followers and believers to be missionaries for the Word of God in their lives of word and actions.
Action
Take a moment to image yourself in the presence of the risen Christ blessing you with the promise of the Spirit, calling you to be a witness to others. Or, image Jesus leaving you, a believer, with the invitation to proclaim by your words and actions that Jesus is the Christ, the Word of God and Redeemer.
Sister Barbara Sheehan, SP, a Sister of Providence since 1960, lives in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods after several years in Chicago, where she ministered as Executive Director/ACPE Supervisor of the Urban Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium, Inc. and as a spiritual director. She has extensive training not only in clinical pastoral supervision but also in care with those sexually abused, those challenged with mental illness and those suffering trauma. She has offered many workshops at regional, national and international conferences, is the author of Partner in Covenant: The Art of Spiritual Companionship and of numerous articles including one of her latest, Formation For Professional Practice: Addressing Social Hurts" in Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry, Vol. 34 2014.
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