Readings:
Acts 22:30, 23:6-11
John 17:20-26
Reflection:
Acts 22:30, 23:6-11 ‘Courage you have borne witness to me in Jerusalem now you must do the same in Rome’
John 17:20-26 ‘I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so I may be in them.’
Extra Texts
Beloved, we are God’s children now: what we will be has not yet been revealed.
What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we too will see him as he is.
(1 John 3:2)
‘For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now we know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope and love abide, these three and the greatest of these is love.
(1 Cor 13:12-13)
Our knowledge and awareness of God in our lives continue to grow over the generations. This happens because the faith experience of generations of believing people becomes the foundation stone on which future generations build their faith. The Gospel today is addressed to future generations whose faith comes from the disciples who had a physical/spiritual experience of Jesus and his communion with the Father.
Jesus prayers that we should all have that experience of love which Paul presents to us in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:12-13)
Going beyond the experiences of Paul and John we encounter a continuous stream of knowledge and experience of the divine to which the mystics down through the ages have added their testimony.
Our journey in faith is signposted with spiritual directions and road side stops where in that stillness we can encounter our God.
Lord may we see how you are leading us into everlasting life. Amen
Fr Peter Addicoat CP is parish priest and community leader of our St Joseph’s parish/community in Hobart Tasmania.