Even unto the end of the world.....

Did you ever wonder what thoughts went through Jesus' mind as He spent long hours in prayer on a mountainside in the darkness? Being human as well as divine, He must have worried that His followers were so slow to understand who He was, and why He had come. Even after His resurrection, we know He was very concerned about leaving them alone until the Holy Spirit came. He knew that this idea of founding a Church was a risky venture. Would it survive?

In today's Gospel, we hear Jesus pour out His love for them and for those of us who would come later. He prayed for their strengthening and their courage. He is so concerned that, as yet, they still do not know His relationship with the Father, how the Persons of the Trinity meld into one God. He so wishes that they could understand the vibrant, joyful life of heaven. And so He prays for faith for them and for all who will hear the Word, as well as for that unity that will bind the Church on earth to the Church in heaven.

For all of us today who live in a Church under siege--from unbelief; from anger at a sinful, imperfect Church; from fears that the Holy Spirit has abandoned us--we need to read this Gospel and the whole farewell sermon of Jesus that night before His Passion. As the apostles then, and later, gathered in prayer with Mary in the upper room, we need to trust in the power and promise of Jesus to His followers.

As there were martyrs soon after Pentecost, like Stephen, so there are thousands since then who have "washed their robes so as to have a right to the tree of life." We in our time may never be stoned to death, but so many Catholics feel spiritually martyred from parish closings, and from not enough priests to live in their midst as consoling ministers of the Word and the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. They feel under attack from an indifferent, secular society.

May we pray today with Jesus' prayer for unity, in church, in parish meetings, and at home with our families, for stronger faith and stronger love, for stronger courage for our own witnessing, that will lead to the unity so important for the mission of the Church.