“Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. ”

“We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.” - Thomas Merton

Gospel text: John 17:20-26

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:

"I pray not only for these,

but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

so that they may all be one,

as you, Father, are in me and I in you,

that they also may be in us,

that the world may believe that you sent me.

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one,

I in them and you in me,

that they may be brought to perfection as one,

that the world may know that you sent me,

and that you loved them even as you loved me.

Father, they are your gift to me.

I wish that where I am they also may be with me,

that they may see my glory that you gave me,

because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,

but I know you, and they know that you sent me.

I made known to them your name and I will make it known,

that the love with which you loved me

may be in them and I in them."

Many of you reading this are citizens of the United States. By "united," we do not mean that people will always agree with each other or with the government. "United" means that all the states accept a certain national political system. However, by Jesus' standards, "United" means that we are graced to be one as Jesus and the Father are One (Jn 17:21-22). "United" means living in Jesus and He in us (Jn 17:23). "United" means being temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19) and having the Triune God live within us. "United" means being members of the body of Christ and being baptized into His body, the Church (1 Cor 12:12-13).

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus prays that we would be one as He and the Father are One. Then the world will believe that the Father sent the Son. The people of the world closely observe Christians fighting with each other. The devil showcases to non-Christians our racism, denominations, divisions, and jealousies. This turns them off to the gospel.

In the living memory of His Holiness Pope John Paul II's last visit to Spain before more then a million persons, we find in his words the echo of Jesus' prayer for his disciples: “With my open arms, in my heart I carry you all”

“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”

Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. God loves a cheerful giver. She gives most who gives with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the Christ risen.  - Mother Teresa

Gospel text (Jn 17,11b-19):

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:

"Holy Father, keep them in your name

that you have given me,

so that they may be one just as we are one.

When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,

and I guarded them, and none of them was lost

except the son of destruction,

in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you.

I speak this in the world

so that they may share my joy completely.

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.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world

but that you keep them from the Evil One.

They do not belong to the world

any more than I belong to the world.

Consecrate them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world,

so I sent them into the world.

And I consecrate myself for them,

so that they also may be consecrated in truth."

Today in our society people seek the happiness of Jesus in all the wrong places and in the wrong ways. Seeking happiness without God only leads to deeper unhappiness. But don’t take my word for it, just look at the TV or read the paper each and every day, there is always somebody in trouble. The people in the news, time and time again, show us the misery of a godless life.

Notice the words in today’s gospel text, Jesus wants his joy to be complete in us. «I leave these my words in the world that my joy may be complete in them» (Jn 17,13).

Christ does not want us to be joyful sometimes, He wants us to be full of His joy all the time! We all were created for this joy in the here and now. This however does not mean that we will not have crosses in our lives, for «the world has hated them because they are not of the world» (Jn 17,14), but Jesus expects us to live with His joy no matter what the world thinks of us or does to us. The joy of Jesus is to permeate us to our very core while the superficial rumblings of a godless world should not be able to penetrate us. 



Today then let us live with the joy of Jesus. How can we acquire more and more of this joy? Obviously from Jesus himself. Jesus is the only one who gives us the true joy that the world is lacking as we see in the daily news. Jesus said, «If you remain in me and my words in you, you may ask whatever you want and it will be given to you» (Jn 15,7). Then let us spend time each day in prayer, let us receive the sacraments frequently (Eucharist and Reconciliation), let us eat and consume the words of Jesus in the Scriptures, let them be our food, so that we may be satiated with the joy of God. Pope Benedict XVI put it very well when he stated«Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon»

And aren’t we all looking for a new horizon in life? - Be honest………..

“One filled with joy preaches without preaching”

“There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point.

What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house.

That says enough.”  - Mother Teresa

(Scripture Text: [298] Acts 20:17-27)

From Miletus Paul had the presbyters

of the Church at Ephesus summoned.

When they came to him, he addressed them,

"You know how I lived among you

the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.

I served the Lord with all humility

and with the tears and trials that came to me

because of the plots of the Jews,

and I did not at all shrink from telling you

what was for your benefit,

or from teaching you in public or in your homes.

I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks

to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.

But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.

What will happen to me there I do not know,

except that in one city after another

the Holy Spirit has been warning me

that imprisonment and hardships await me.

Yet I consider life of no importance to me,

if only I may finish my course

and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,

to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.

"But now I know that none of you

to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels

will ever see my face again.

And so I solemnly declare to you this day

that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God."

I love to read books on the Saints of the Catholic Church. They are filled with remarkable people whose lives epitomized what it meant to live for the greater glory of God. The Saints come from all walks of life, from the rich to the poor, from the very simple to the most brilliant minds. They walked among us 2000 years ago to as recent as 10 years ago. Instead of calling them Saints, we could call them “Heroes of Faith.”

Today’s scripture passage focuses on St Paul and his work as a missionary. Paul is a remarkable Biblical hero. It is hard to imagine how he must have felt as he preached the Gospel, despite knowing that he would probably be executed. Paul didn’t make a decision in a moment to be a hero. For his entire time as a missionary, he knew what could happen. Every day, he chose to be heroic, to make the biggest impact he could.

I often wonder if I could be a hero if the time called for it. Today Paul shows us that being a martyr wasn’t a onetime decision. It was a lifetime of choices. Being a hero of faith is something we all have the opportunity to do, every day. It means living each day with character and dignity and having the greatest impact on the greatest number of people we can.

After all, isn’t that what we are supposed do, to continue Christ’s mission here on earth? As he says in the Gospel,

“And now I will no longer be in the world,

but they are in the world, while I am coming to you." -John 17:11a

Even a coward can praise Christ, but it takes a person of courage to follow him

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

(Gospel Text: Jn 16:29-33)

The disciples said to Jesus,

"Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech.

Now we realize that you know everything

and that you do not need to have anyone question you.

Because of this we believe that you came from God."

Jesus answered them, "Do you believe now?

Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived

when each of you will be scattered to his own home

and you will leave me alone.

But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.

In the world you will have trouble,

but take courage, I have conquered the world."

Today, we may have the feeling that the world of faith in Christ is weakening. Many are symptoms against the fortitude and courage we would like to receive from a life integrally based on the Gospel. Consumerism,  capitalism w/out boundaries, sensualism and materialism values are very much in fashion and against any representation that may be in tune with the evangelical demands. Nevertheless, this combination of values and life styles today do not provide either for our own personal plenitude or our peace; in fact, it rather brings an intimate feeling of discomfort and uneasiness.

Could not it be because of these circumstance that, today, we see lots of people in public sulking, lost in thought and worrying about a rather obscure future, most probably because they have pledged it against the cost of a car, a home, or some holiday they simply cannot afford?


Jesus' words inspire confidence: «Courage! I have overcome the world» (Jn 16:33), that is, through his Passion, Death and Resurrection, He has attained the eternal life, life with nothing to stop it, a limitless life because it has overcome all limits and all difficulties. 


But «in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us» (Rm 8:37). Let us be witnesses to God's love, because He has, with us, «done great things» (Lk 1:49) and has given us his help to overcome all difficulties, even death, because Christ is sending us the Holy Spirit.

“All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace”

“We are half hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased.” ~ C.S. Lewis

(Gospel text: Jn 17:11B-19)
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
"Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
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.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the evil one.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth."

We hear in the Gospel, from the last chapter of Jesus’ Last Discourse to His faithful “eleven”. Seven times in eight verses Jesus uses the word “world”. The “world” is definitely a place to which He has been sent and into which the Apostles are to go. Jesus has spoken to them and is speaking to them while still physically with them in the “world”.

The Apostles gathered together after the Ascension, but soon had to begin getting down and dirty and disliked to the point of imprisonment and execution.

There are political and social issues to which the Church is speaking and the spirit of the “world” is moving to silence its voice. It is trying to convince us that the Church doesn’t belong in the “world”; doesn’t have the proper values of the “world”. We, each, will hear these voices within ourselves and say, “ah leave it to the politicians.” Yes, this is partly true, but they need our voices as well. There is no more fleeing the “world” after reading this Gospel, after receiving the Eucharist and being encouraged to “Go in peace to glorify God in your lives.” Where is this service to be done? In church buildings alone, up and out of the “world”! No, I think we are not hated enough yet to satisfy Jesus and fulfill His prediction.

'Do not be afraid to abandon yourself unreservedly to His loving Providence, for a child cannot perish in the arms of a Father

'The more you abandon to God the care of all temporal things the more He will take care to provide for all your wants. But if on the contrary you try to supply all your needs Providence will allow you to continue to do just that, and then it may very well happen that even necessity will be lacking to you. For God will reprove you for your lack of faith in reliance on self.'

St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle

Gospel Text: Jn 16:23B-28

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

Until now you have not asked anything in my name;

ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

"I have told you this in figures of speech.

The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures

but I will tell you clearly about the Father.

On that day you will ask in my name,

and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.

For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me

and have come to believe that I came from God.

I came from the Father and have come into the world.

Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."

This verse is one that has often puzzled me.  In today’s society, we hear about things people ask for that they believe they need in order to be happy.  This verse seems to imply that God will give us whatever we ask for, like the spoiled kid in the toy store that just whines to mommy or daddy to get whatever it is he/she wants.  What we don’t realize is God knows our needs better than we do.  He gives us what we ask for when what we ask for will make us truly happy.

Jesus came so that we might know his Father.  It is through Jesus that we can ask God for what we need.  We should remember that as we go through our days.  Jesus came so we would be able to have complete joy in life.  It is through God that we find what will truly make us happy, and that’s a reminder we all need sometimes. 

I know I do.