Jn 17:11b-19
Acts 1:15-26
John 4:11-16
Focus: Jesus desires our unity and our connectedness with him.
Function: Through his Holy Spirit, he empowers and enables us to be his witnesses.
Dear brothers and sisters in the faith,
A journalist writes about his visit in a high security federal prison: I saw the tired, expressionless faces of the prisoners who walked around in pairs in the inner courtyard, one group ten steps behind the next. “There are quite a number of gifted people among them,” the guard said who accompanied me with his large key chain. “The short one over there for instance paints great pictures!” Then in the office he showed me a painting in vivid colors: twelve men gaze upward with a startled look, their hair disheveled by the wind, their faces bathed in shining light, their eyes wide-open and unusually big. The guard remarked, “He calls this picture Pentecost. He did is for our prison chapel. But they don’t allow him to put it up because he only painted other inmates,
actually the worst ones, the real criminals!”
Later I could talk with the artist. “I find your picture exiting,” I began, “But why did you paint inmates? The folks of the first Pentecost were all converted people!” He responded somewhat exited, “At Pentecost everything changed, though! The pious ones don’t need this insight so much.
But one had to show to those who have given up on themselves that a new beginning is possible,
that through this power sinners can be turned around radically!” I did not let up: “But why did you pick out the worst of your fellow inmates?”
“Pentecost is a miracle,” he replied. “The little sinners can be changed by their own wives, sometimes even through prison.But the very big ones—only God can change.” I noticed how he wrestled with himself. He pointed to one spot of the painting without any words. Only then I noticed that he had painted himself there. “The real big ones only God can change,” he repeated.
Today’s gospel is a prayer of Jesus for his disciples and – as the verse immediately following today’s passage says – also for those who believe in him through their word. He prays that they may be given what he has with his heavenly Father: unity. In prayer form, Jesus touches again on what he had said earlier in these Farewell Discourses, namely that it’s necessary for believers to keep his word and command and to remain, to abide, to stay in his love. Only a branch that is connected to the vine can bear fruit. If it is cut off it will wither and die. He prays that God may keep them, who will continue to live in this world, from the power of the evil one.
In this prayer a person can feel the anguish, love and concern that Jesus has for his disciples, He knows that if they speak the same words of truth that he spoke they will experience opposition as he did. They will be faced with incomprehension, ridicule and persecution.
Today’s first reading tells us about the days before the first Pentecost. The apostles, Mary and some other disciples spend most of this time in the upper room, in prayer waiting for “the promise of the Father,” for the coming down upon them of the Holy Spirit with its power.
As we just heard, Peter announced during these days to a larger group of disciples that it’s necessary for Judas to be replaced as one of the Twelve. Why is it necessary? The number 12 is symbolic. The 12 apostles represent the 12 tribes of God’s original people. With the apostles as the core, the risen Jesus wants to establish God’s new people all-over the world by sending his disciples to give witness to him: In Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Dear sisters and brothers, Jesus desires also our unity and our connectedness with him. Through his Holy Spirit, he empowers and enables us to be his witnesses.
So many things appear to be impossible or nearly impossible, humanly speaking: the breaking of unhealthy and sinful habits in our own lives, unity of Christians in spite of and in the midst of all the diversity with is good, unity even within our Church, standing up together for gospel values in a politically divided country and in a secularized society, proclaiming the Gospel message in countries
where Christians are persecuted… All this cannot be done with human strength alone.
The nine days between Ascension and Pentecost are a time of waiting and praying for the Holy Spirit, whom Christ has sent and sends to us ever anew, The Holy Spirit, who heals our wounds renews our strength, washes the stain of guilt away, melts the frozen, warms the chill and guides the steps that go astray.
Like the prisoner and artist in our story we, too, may hope in the Holy Spirit’s transforming power – within us and in others. Even the real big sinners God can change. Let’s pray today and throughout next week for ourselves, for our families and friends, for our work places, for our Church and our churches, for our society and for our world – that God may do amazing, miraculous things and bring about a new Pentecost.
AMEN.