Saturday, May 23, 2020

Fr. Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie, MSP - May 24, 2020. Homily Seventh Sunday of Easter


Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
Acts 1:12-14, 1 Peter 4:13-16, John 17:1-17
Going through the gospel reading of today, one could just think of a discussion between a man and his son or a woman and her daughter having some men and women talks respectively. The bible portrays Jesus in various places to always go to a quiet and lonely place to pray. Prayer here between Jesus and his Father, may not be the way we kneel down to pray to God; it is definitely a form of conversation, the type that father and son have. It is that type of conversation between Jesus and his Father that we see in the gospel reading of today. The gospel reading just as we have had for about two Sundays now, is part of the last discussion between Jesus and his disciples in the context of the last supper. He was speaking to his Father as if they were together; indeed Jesus was always with his Father in prayer. We will still see such conversations between Jesus and his Father after this, one at the garden of Gethsemane where he asked his father if he must drunk the cup or it is possible to take it from him, and secondly, his last discussion with his Father on the cross before he died.
This is the type of conversation Jesus also calls us to have with the Father. We do not pray to God as if we are slaves talking to their master, Jesus has made all of us adopted children of God. This we see in the prayer he prays for us all in the gospel reading.
In the first reading of today, we see that when Jesus had ascended to heaven, Jesus instructed his disciples to go to the upper room in Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit so that they too can have the same connection to God. It is this same Holy Spirit that we are waiting to commemorate his coming next Sunday as we approach the end of the Easter season.
When we have that same Spirit of God in us, we can therefore easily communicate with our Father in heaven just as Jesus did. God help us. Amen
Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie MSP

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