Grace Cathedral

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; Psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19

Today we begin the final week of celebrating the Lord’s resurrection. Each Sunday during these fifty days, we have explored some aspect of our baptism into the dying and rising of Jesus. Today’s Gospel reading is a portion of Jesus’ prayer for his disciples on the night before he died. In that prayer, he asked the Father to unite us with him and to give us the same mission and grace the Father gave to him. 

The sense of unity within the fellowship of Jesus’ disciples was reflected in the period between his ascension and the day of Pentecost. We hear about the most significant event during that period in the first reading today when, under Peter’s leadership, the disciples chose a replacement for Judas.

The reading from 1 John also reflects the theme of unity between Jesus and the Father, and between Jesus and us.

Our life in Christ is the gift of God in and through the resurrection. That new life by water and the Holy Spirit will be our theme next week when, on the fiftieth day of Easter, we rejoice that we are filled with the Spirit of God.

From The Rite Light: Reflections on the Sunday Readings and Seasons of the Church Year. Copyright © 2009 by Michael W. Merriman. Church Publishing Incorporated, New York.