Seventh Sunday of Easter – May 12, 2024

05-12-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Stephen Yusko

On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, the last before the great Solemnity of Pentecost, we find ourselves with the nascent Church as she patiently and prayerfully awaits the “promise of the Father,” who is the Holy Spirit in whose power the disciples would burst forth from the upper room, like the blood and water that burst forth from the heart of Christ, to sanctify the nations, gathering them into the Kingdom of Heaven through their witness to the risen Christ.

In this moment, however, within the decade of days that bridge Ascension Thursday — the day in which “the Lord set His throne in Heaven” — to the Feast of Pentecost, we hear of the eleven Apostles united as one body in deep and persevering prayer with the one hundred and twenty disciples, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the other holy women. Prayer that perhaps resembles the high priestly prayer, the last and longest that Jesus would utter in that same room before his arrest on the night of the Last Supper. In this prayer — the second part of which was heard in our Gospel — Jesus asked the Father to keep the Apostles, and the Church through them, in His name. That name has been revealed in its fullness in the person of Christ Jesus, through whom the disciples will experience the unity that the Father enjoys with the Son and the Son enjoys with the Father, a unity effected in the Church by the Spirit of Truth and Love. As St. John tells us in our second reading: “This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us, that He has given us of His Spirit . . . God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.”

Yet, while the Church keeps watch for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, something seems to be amiss. Like a missing note in a song, or a character that is absent from a story, the betrayal and absence of the twelfth Apostle looms large: the proverbial elephant that is not in the room. The seat has remained empty since that fateful night. Chosen and consecrated by Christ to be an Apostle; allotted a twelfth share of the ministry and counted as one of the twelve patriarchs and officers of the Kingdom, and so, destined with the eleven to “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” Judas “turned aside” from this exalted calling “to go to his own place.”

I can think of no more tragic statement than this one uttered by St. Peter, as it alludes to the eternal fate of the “son of perdition.” Having used his exalted vocation to enrich and serve himself rather than Christ, he “turned aside,” a term used to describe Israel’s defection when they worshiped the molten calf (Ex 32:8). He defected from the Way, a defection that began and ended with his disbelief in the “sacrament of unity,” “the bond of charity,” the Most Holy Eucharist, and so, a defection that began and ended by disbelief in the identity of Christ Himself. By receiving the morsel of bread from the hand of his Friend and Master with a heart filled with deceit and disbelief, he withdrew from communion with Christ and became one with devil. He vacated the apostolic office of Christ to assume the one offered him by Satan. Consequently, where once he was destined to lead souls to Christ, he now leads them against Him. And now, having ratified this exchange with a rope, he, like Satan, has gone to “his own place” leaving behind him a wound that must be healed, an office that must be filled. For eleven is not the number of the restored Israel, but twelve, nor is the apostolic office rendered null and void because its occupant proved to be unfaithful.

Therefore, Peter, the prince of the apostles and the external principle of unity, who himself “turned aside” for a time out of weakness, now having turned back to Christ begins tending the Lord’s sheep, strengthening his brothers by leading them in restoring the twelve through the appointment of Matthias. The seat that was once empty has been filled; the office that was once vacant has been restored; the unity that was once wounded has been healed and the Church is now ready to receive the Spirit.

As we gather together as one body, then, at a time in which it appears as though the wounds of division are growing ever wider in the visible Church, as a consequence of those bishops, priests, deacons, and lay persons who like Judas, have “turned aside” from the call to holiness to seek their own place, we must neither be scandalized nor despair. For “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom 8:28). Therefore, may we do what the disciples did on this day. May we unite in prayer and recommit ourselves to the great task of doing those things that make for unity, namely: holding fast to the teaching and communion of the apostles, as well as to their successors; devoutly attending Mass and receiving the sacrament of unity, the Most Holy Eucharist, with souls made pure in the sacrament of reconciliation; and finally, by remaining vigilant in prayer, even making Christ’s High Priestly prayer our own by praying: “Father, may we be one even as you and the Son are one, that we may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent your Son Jesus Christ and have loved us even as you have loved Him” (Jn 17:22) By our doing these things, may the Holy Spirit find our hearts united to Christ by the bonds of charity this Pentecost, ready to go out and bear witness that the Father has sent His Son for the salvation of the world. Today, then, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us pray as one: “Come, Holy Spirit, come!”