Wednesday of the Seventh Sunday of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth.” Jn 17:14, 16-17

I find something of a commentary on this text in our first reading today. St. Paul is speaking to his flock in Ephesus, which he is about ready to leave for good. He says to them, “and now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.”

Christ’s gracious word to us is his assurance that we belong. We belong, not to the world but to Him, the risen Victor who is leading us back to Heaven! His act of consecration on the cross, giving himself over completely to his Father, has set us apart for worship of his Father. We belong, not to this world but to that vast throng of saints who worship in heaven. This ‘setting-apart’, this belonging, is meant to become evident in the truth of our existence. This truth stands in opposition to a world of lies promoted by the Evil One. It is a world of lies that inhabits our thoughts all too frequently.

Here are a few examples:
I’ll never amount to anything. I’ll never be a success. I am a failure
I am all alone. I have to do it all myself. No one will help me
Something’s wrong with me. It always ends up being my fault.
I’m emotionally crippled because my family was very dysfunctional.
If they knew the real me, no one would like me.

You may consider your own variation on such lies. Regardless, they all are part of the illusions that obstruct seeing who we really are, our “truth.” Our consecration, our being ‘set-apart’, our belonging, is meant to build us into Christ. But we have to fight the lies and increasingly know our dignity as members of Christ.

One simple way to carry on this fight is to make sure that we never go to bed at night without a word of gratitude to God. It may not seem like it, but this gratitude is a real exercise of our truth: we belong to God.

Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB