Jesus tells us to look for Christ in one another and to be Christ for one another.

Today at St Joseph’s,  it is the Seventh Sunday of the Easter Season; it is Mother’s Day; and it is First Communion Sunday.  This is the Day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.

Mothers, thank you for the love you share with your children, with your family, and with your parish family.  We thank God for our own mothers – living and deceased.  Our moms are most often the first people who have taught us to pray.  May we never forget to pray in the way and the manner that our moms have taught us to pray.

We celebrate First Communion another time at St. Joseph’s.  Thanks be to God.  Our precious First Communicants are a gift to our parish community; and in the sharing of the Eucharist together, we are more closely united to each other in the sharing of the Eucharist.  We ask God’s many blessings to be with our First Communicants this day and every day.

In the Upper Room on the Eve of His Passion, the Lord prayed for his disciples gathered around him in today’s Gospel’s account.  At the same time, he looked ahead to the community of disciples of all centuries.  In his prayer for all disciples of all time, he saw us too, and he prayed for us.  He prayed that we be consecrated in truth.

In today’s Gospel, we are listening to the prayer of Jesus to His heavenly Father. 

This takes place on the Last Supper with Jesus very conscious of His impending death on the cross.  Jesus does not see his death as an ending, but rather his going home to His heavenly Father.

Overhearing Jesus at prayer is our way of understanding the identity of Jesus and our participation in the divine plan.  The mission of Jesus is to become our mission.  What is this mission – to release divine love into the world.

May the prayer of Jesus be our prayer as well.  May we make the Lord’s name known; may we do the work the Lord has given to do; may we witness to the joy that is God’s gift to us; and may we be consecrated in truth.

To consecrate someone means to give that person to God.    We are set apart for God.  It is the journey of turning away from the world and a giving over of ourselves to the living God.   Being given over to God means being missioned to witness to divine love.  We must be available for others, for everyone.

Jesus does not pray that the Father take us out of this world, although he recognized the world can be a dangerous place to be.  Jesus prayed that we be protected from the evil, and that we live with joy, and that we be consecrated in truth.

Jesus tells us to look for Christ in one another and to be Christ for one another.

Have a blessed day.