Rev. Justin Mpuruta sx
We are in the period between the Ascension and Pentecost. Like the Apostles in the Upper Room (the Cenacle), who prayed and awaited God’s gift, the Church prays, waiting to be renewed by the Holy Spirit. We began already our Novena to the Holy Spirit preparing the Pentecost. Moreover, our prayer is weak without Jesus-Christ, God in real human nature, who came to live amongst us and continues to intercede for us to the Father. He ensured us already that he is “The Way and the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14, 6). Therefore, we listen today to the prayer he offered the night before his death. First of all, Jesus prays for glory. He prays to his Father, saying, “Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you”. Before he leaves this world, he want to make sure that God be glorified! He wants God's greatness, his love, and his light to be known and acknowledged by all. He faced already the temptation in the Desert and he knows that Satan wants to be glorified. And this Liar, the Devil is still using the human kind, you and me, to take this Glory destined to God. If Jesus asks to regain the glory he had before the foundation of the world, it is solely so that his Father may be glorified, known, and loved by all. Secondly, he prays for the Unity among his apostles, then amongst us. His sacerdotal prayer remains today: "Holy Father, keep them in your Name (that you have given me.) so that they may be one, just as we are one. "(Jn. 17:11). We are conscious that without his help we cannot remain in Unity. Jesus prayed to his Father that the Apostles may have unity, for perfection and holiness can only be had when the people are united in heart and soul because "Every kingdom that is divided by civil war will fall apart, and every dynasty that is divided cannot last." (Mt. 12: 25)
At the Ascension, Jesus regains his glory with his Father, but he returns transformed, with a resurrected body. So he wanted for us, his friends to be glorified by him and continue to glorify the Father by the help of the Holy Spirit in this world. Thus, through his ascension, Jesus receives the power to give eternal life to all those whom the Father has given him. Let us don’t forget that Christ’s Glorification passed through crucifixion, through suffering. And this is the certitude that Saint Peter offers to us in the Second Reading: “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of Glory rests upon you”. The psalm 27 today help us to not be ashamed being Christians in this World dominated by all kind of practices contrary to God. “To dwell in the house of the Lord… this is what I seek, … all the days of my life. … To admire the beauty of the Lord.” Are we truly seeking the Lord? We have a great responsibility to show the presence of God in this world through our life.
Let us offer him freely our poverty, our limitations, our sin, trusting in his boundless goodness and mercy. Let us ask the Lord for the strength of the Holy Spirit so that, following Christ, we may glorify the Father with our whole lives. When we glorify God by our life, God will glorify us and he will be with us always.
We are in the period between the Ascension and Pentecost. Like the Apostles in the Upper Room (the Cenacle), who prayed and awaited God’s gift, the Church prays, waiting to be renewed by the Holy Spirit. We began already our Novena to the Holy Spirit preparing the Pentecost. Moreover, our prayer is weak without Jesus-Christ, God in real human nature, who came to live amongst us and continues to intercede for us to the Father. He ensured us already that he is “The Way and the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14, 6). Therefore, we listen today to the prayer he offered the night before his death. First of all, Jesus prays for glory. He prays to his Father, saying, “Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you”. Before he leaves this world, he want to make sure that God be glorified! He wants God's greatness, his love, and his light to be known and acknowledged by all. He faced already the temptation in the Desert and he knows that Satan wants to be glorified. And this Liar, the Devil is still using the human kind, you and me, to take this Glory destined to God. If Jesus asks to regain the glory he had before the foundation of the world, it is solely so that his Father may be glorified, known, and loved by all. Secondly, he prays for the Unity among his apostles, then amongst us. His sacerdotal prayer remains today: "Holy Father, keep them in your Name (that you have given me.) so that they may be one, just as we are one. "(Jn. 17:11). We are conscious that without his help we cannot remain in Unity. Jesus prayed to his Father that the Apostles may have unity, for perfection and holiness can only be had when the people are united in heart and soul because "Every kingdom that is divided by civil war will fall apart, and every dynasty that is divided cannot last." (Mt. 12: 25)
At the Ascension, Jesus regains his glory with his Father, but he returns transformed, with a resurrected body. So he wanted for us, his friends to be glorified by him and continue to glorify the Father by the help of the Holy Spirit in this world. Thus, through his ascension, Jesus receives the power to give eternal life to all those whom the Father has given him. Let us don’t forget that Christ’s Glorification passed through crucifixion, through suffering. And this is the certitude that Saint Peter offers to us in the Second Reading: “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of Glory rests upon you”. The psalm 27 today help us to not be ashamed being Christians in this World dominated by all kind of practices contrary to God. “To dwell in the house of the Lord… this is what I seek, … all the days of my life. … To admire the beauty of the Lord.” Are we truly seeking the Lord? We have a great responsibility to show the presence of God in this world through our life.
Let us offer him freely our poverty, our limitations, our sin, trusting in his boundless goodness and mercy. Let us ask the Lord for the strength of the Holy Spirit so that, following Christ, we may glorify the Father with our whole lives. When we glorify God by our life, God will glorify us and he will be with us always.