This seventh and last Sunday of Easter causes us to look back over the past seven weeks to contemplate all that has happened. It is a good time for reflection on the meaning of the Paschal events in our lives and a time to contemplate on the impact that this has for us going forward.

Like all aspects of our relationship with Christ we do need to consider how we exercise the discipleship to which we have been called.

The Church challenges us to look forward by first looking backwards. The Gospel for this Sunday comes from the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper. Having just given his final instructions to the disciples as they prepare to head out to the garden where he will be arrested, Jesus speaks aloud this prayer to the Father.

Of course, the prayer serves to continue the instruction to the disciples as an explanation of what is to come. 

The prayer opens with the declaration: “Father, the hour has come.” For those who are familiar with John’s Gospel we know that at the beginning when Mary comes to Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus tells her that his hour had not yet come. Reading carefully through the Gospel we note with what frequency the evangelist emphasizes the time of day that Jesus is performing the various signs in his ministry.

Now, with all things standing on the verge of completion, Jesus proclaims the coming of the hour. What is this hour and why has it been so important to John’s proclamation?

The hour, as we read, is that of the exaltation or the glorification of the Son of God. Yet it stands outside of our sense of reason and rationality perhaps that this glorification is not a personal exaltation.

Jesus is not carried off and enthroned as a king nor is he adored and worshiped as the Incarnation of God. Instead this exaltation this glorification is the enthronement and the adoration of the Cross that was the instrument of his torture and death.

The ironic turn in the Gospel then is that in Jesus’ humiliation is his glorification.

This stands as the ultimate rejection of Jesus – indeed of God in the person of Jesus – by the world. We can see as we contemplate the full Gospel passage here that Jesus stands rejected by the world and prays that the disciples are not overcome by the world. 

It is this rejection of and by the world that will stand as a hallmark of Jesus’ prayer for the disciples and for all of us who claim to be disciples of Jesus as well.

Being a disciple of Jesus – indeed specifically being a Catholic Christian – ought to make us uncomfortable. There are very clear and distinct ways that we stand by virtue of our faith conviction, creedal formulations and moral discipline in stark opposition to the values, principles and mores of our society.

The chasm between the faithful Catholic and the world grows deeper and deeper as time moves forward. To a large extent this is distressing – not because it makes us uncomfortable – but because it shows the impact that we as Christians and as Catholics have on the policies of society and the values of the world at large is diminishing and not growing stronger.

While on one level this is a cause for distress, it is also the very reality for which Jesus prepared the disciples and us in the discourse and prayer at the Last Supper.

The world – those who do not heed the call of the Gospel – will always be hostile to the Gospel. They are threatened by the message and cannot tolerate the power that comes through weakness, the glorification that comes from suffering and the humility that leads to exaltation. 

These are not easy times to proclaim and live the Gospel, but
we stand in the hope that standing with Jesus we will find our joy in eternal life.