Changed Forever

This Sunday we recapitulate the mission and identity of Jesus ... and what this means for us today.

In the first reading [Acts 1:12-14], after witnessing the Ascension, the first disciples return to the Upper Room and pray.  They know what they're in for, and they know they need all the help they can get.  So they get on their knees and, with Mary, they pray.

In the second reading [1 Peter 4:13-16] we are encouraged to emulate Christ, giving us hope and strength, even in the face of persecution.  In fact, these struggles and suffering are reasons to rejoice because in our fidelity to God, like Christ, we are glorified (and God is glorified in us).

In the Gospel [John 17:1-11a], we are reminded of who Jesus is, what he did, and how we have been changed ... forever.

Why do the disciples pray?  Why should we be encouraged in our suffering?  Why have we been changed forever?

Because Jesus did NOTHING on his own.  All his works (healing, forgiving, and life-giving) were the result of his prayer and union with the Father.  Jesus' humanity is our supreme example because Jesus listens to the Father and freely carries out His will.  Jesus empties himself (kenosis) through trust and love.  This is exactly how we are to live.

John 17:1-11 reinforces not only the divinity of Christ, but the direct union between the Son and the Father.  Although Jesus is fully human and like us in every way but sin, his humanity never exhausts his divinity.  Which means that the Son is fully conscious of being the Son, and through this union with the Father (what the early Fathers call the 'hypostatic union' of the dual-natures of Christ), Jesus acts through, with, and in God.

This is the exact phrase we use in the Eucharistic Prayer:  that "through him, with him, and in him and in the unity of the Holy Spirit" we might direct our energy, our will, and our passions in SYNERGY with God's power, energy, and grace.

We are changed forever because of the Incarnation and the Resurrection.  The Incarnation is the "irrevocable commitment" of God to ALL humanity: by becoming one of us, we become brothers and sisters of God the Son, to be loved as a brother or sister, and to treat one another as brothers and sisters.  

So where does the Ascension fit in and where does that leave us now?

As the Cistercian priest, Roch Kereszty has written, in the Resurrection the crucified humanity of Jesus is completely spiritualized: both his human body and soul are transformed by the Holy Spirit. In this way, Jesus himself can be called "Spirit," can not only breathe for the Holy Spirit on all humanity (as we see on Pentecost) but he can be present to all and in all those who love him. 

So yes, as 1 Peter tells us, we should, "Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly."  This is because we are not the Church of Success; we are the Church of Suffering.  Pope Benedict XVI wrote, in God is Near Us, "The Church of the suffering gives credibility to Christ; she is God's success in the world; the sign that gives hope and courage; the sign from which still flows the power of life, which reaches beyond mere thoughts of success which thereby purifies [humanity] and opens up for God a door into this world."  

Just as Jesus gives his whole divine self to the Father on the cross in his humanity, so also we are called to give our whole human selves to the Father in our sufferings ... and in the process, we are divinized, united with Christ, as we suffer with him and he suffers with us.

We are changed forever.  And for this, we not only pray, but we rejoice.