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7th Sunday of Easter Year B - 13/5/2018 - Gospel: Mk 16:15-20
United in Chirst
The last few weeks we have heard again and again the invitation to 'remain' in Jesus' love. Remaining in Jesus' love is to be united with Jesus and with God the Father. Jesus is going to be with the Father on the Feast of the Ascension we today celebrate but Christians are remaining in Jesus' love to make that connection flow, uninterrupted. First we remain in Jesus' love to bear not just ordinary fruit, but to bear extraordinary fruit, that they are plentiful, and that they are the best quality of fruits; the same kind of fruit of Jesus' work in the world. They are the quality of fruit Jesus desires us to bear and to make His glory known. Second, we are invited to remain in Jesus' love to be connected with Jesus, to avoid being alone in time of trouble. Sometimes our earthly friends are powerless to help because it is beyond their capacity to help. God alone can provide the friendship that nothing can stop Him to be with us because the Risen Christ is free from space and time. Remain in Jesus' love are for strength and courage which arise from within to go through the hard times. Jesus himself had personal experience of being deserted by his friends on His Passion. On His last hour on earth, in the garden of Gethsemane, He called His Apostles to stay awake and pray with Him. They all failed but Jesus forgave and prayed for them and He had never failed to love them. Remain in Jesus' love helps us to encounter the faithfulness of God and through Jesus we are able to make the connection to the Father. The invitation 'remain' in Jesus or 'remain' in His love and be with Jesus comes to the final point and that is the most noble wish Jesus had for us. 

Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as
we are one Jn 17,11.

Jesus prays to the Father that through Him we are united with God the Father because Jesus wishes that what God has given Him will be united with Him and through Him we are united with the Father. And those who are united with the Father will enjoy life to the full and be assured that the Father will give them protection. Jesus returned to the Father and that paved the way for us to follow suit when our pilgrimage on earth is ended. We live in the world but belong to Jesus and the gift that Jesus has promised, after returning to the Father, will come to us to protect us from the evil ones. The evil ones hate and want to harm us because we don't belong to them. We fail and fall into temptations when our prayer life is lacking, not remain in His love. We had been consecrated in the truth of God and be true witnesses for Jesus and Jesus sent us to spread the message of Gods' love who is the truth and through Him we are saved by His unconditional and sacrificial love. Whoever remains in Jesus' love, remains in God. Our motto in life sums up at the Eucharistic prayer. 

'Through Him and with Him and in Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour are your forever and ever. Amen.


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