Word to the Wise
Thursday, May 16, 2024 - 7th Week of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 22:30; 23:6-11 and John 17:20-26]"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." [John]
The Gospel According to John was the last of the four gospels to be composed [90-110 AD]. By that time, Christian missionaries had traveled all around the Roman empire. The evangelist and anyone else who contributed to the text we have now were very likely not living in Jerusalem. Tradition places the apostle John on the Greek island of Ephesus! So, the thought of "those who will come to believe through their word" found its way into the "High Priestly Prayer" of Jesus in the Last Supper discourse. Indeed, the gospel itself is an example of that.
I once heard of a pastor who placed a sign at the entrance of the church parking lot, facing inward, with the words, "BEWARE! YOU ARE ENTERING MISSION TERRITORY!" Pope Francis, in his first encyclical at the beginning of his pontificate, exhorted all the baptized to be "missionary disciples." There is no one way to do this and the task is not the prerogative of priests and religious sisters and brothers. It is the task of all of us who are baptized. I admire the newly-graduated college students who give at least two years of their life to do "missionary work" on university campuses. But there is also work to be done just in our own neighborhoods and communities. Indeed, the "new evangelization" proclaimed by Pope St. John Paul II was (and still is) aimed at our own Catholic brothers and sisters who have become lukewarm in faith or even have abandoned faith altogether.
One cannot do this without the help of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promises in the Last Supper discourse. But we have the assurance of Jesus' own prayers as well to support and encourage us to bring the world to belief in him. AMEN