Sunday, May 29
Seventh Sunday of Easter
“The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.”
Reflection
On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, we find ourselves quickly moving toward Pentecost. However, this past week we celebrated Ascension Thursday, the day the risen Lord is exalted with God in heaven. We may have a difficulty imagining what the exaltation of Jesus really means. This Sunday we recognize that our image of Jesus has changed, or compounded. Jesus is the king who reigns on earth as well as in heaven. How his reign is different from other kings is that he reigns with justice for both the just and the unjust, instead of reigning with brute force, as many earthly kings have done.
Jesus, being exalted by God, is a mighty act within itself; however, it is not an act that the human nature of Jesus could have accomplished on his own. The act of exaltation by God the Father is similar to God the Father sending us his only begotten Son to us in human form. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves why God the Father would act in such a way. Why would he choose to raise to such a height one who shares our humanness? Although Christ shares our humanness and the Godliness of the Father, we have no concrete answers to these questions other than to say that God gives of himself to such an extent that he actually gives us himself in a form in which we can associate.
The exaltation of Jesus should remind us that God calls all of us, in our human weakness, to be Christ-like. For to be Christ-like toward each other is to be God-like to each other. Perhaps that is exactly why God chooses to give us life and every good gift. God wants us to love and take care of one another as he loves and cares for us! We are his gifts to one another!
Peace,
Fr. John
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