The 7th Sunday of Easter – 16th May 2021
Lectionary Readings: Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; Ps 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20; 1 John 4:11-16; Jn 17:11 -19
Theme: Thy Word is truth and the Resurrection that crosses us.

The gospel from John invites us to realize that the consecration of life by the Word of God involves  Resurrection to real life. Each Easter Sunday is “the day to feel that life truly begins anew”. “In the current context, it can be an almost strange claim: in the middle of suffering are we going to celebrate joy? In the middle of this exile are we going to play our harps, our lyres again? Today we must celebrate and spread joy and hope in the world.

 Despite the difficulties and limitations in these pandemic times, many people continue to animate their communities; many are close to those who suffer: cheering up the fallen, accompanying their broken hearts, saying that there is hope, and bringing the Easter announcement to the world.

We are called to look at the events of the world, the present, the stage where so much tragedy and suffering happens not with a vague expectation, with uncertainty, but with the certainty that comes from the resurrection and that changes our outlook because we start from the certainty that Jesus guarantees our life, our existence. In the middle of the block that is the present moment, there is the Good News that we can transmit. This is not the time for the suspension of Christianity. This is the time for a more convinced, more committed, more enthusiastic announcement that the human heart most needs. The human heart awaits small solutions for the historical situation of each moment. But above all, it waits for a Word that redeems the whole of our life, the maximum horizon of our existence. And then, the announcement of the resurrection is necessary.

Living the Resurrection of Jesus, we too are included in the group of those who follow the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus, as the first reading tells us. The promise to send us the Holy Spirit mentioned in the second reading comforts us and fills our days with new life. We are consecrated by the Word of God, which is the truth, the Gospel teaches us.

How are we consecrated by the Truth of that Divine Word? That is the great job of the resurrection, to believe: to believe because from this Word and this truth we have learned to love. Who loves, who cares, who remains faithful, who perfumes the lives of others, who does not abandon, who inhabits the place of the neighborhood? The one who believes spreads that belief through their lives.

And that is what Easter asks of each of us: that we learn to believe. To believe that life is greater than death; that God repairs wounds; that God can save the lost; that there is no such thing as irrecoverable; that He can make and recreate and rebuild because He is the God of life. The resurrection, the empty tomb, is this burst of life – it becomes a source, a spring. It is from this God, from this Word-Source that we must feed ourselves to fill our lives with gestures, looks, paths, projects, service in favor of life, in favor of brothers and sisters because the resurrection must be the life that crosses us.

For Reflection and Discussion: 1. How can we be consecrated by the Word of God and by the Resurrection? 2. Is it just a rite or does consecration transform real and concrete life?Bibliography: D. José Tolentino Mendonça, Hope in the resurrection is not unauthorizedhttps://agencia.ecclesia.pt/portal/semana-santa-a-esperanca-na-ressurreicao-nao-esta-desautorizada-d-jose-tolentino-mendonca-c-video/

This week’s Sunday Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Fernando Gross, Brazil, Bat Kol Alumnus: 2017 – 2019

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