Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29

Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8

Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 or Revelation 22:12–14, 16–17, 20

John 14:23-29 or John 17:20–26

There are different options for this weekend’s readings based on the local custom for celebration of the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. In some dioceses, the celebration of the Ascension takes place on the Thursday following the Sixth Sunday of Easter, and then the Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost is called the Seventh Sunday of Easter. 

In many dioceses, the Ascension has been moved from Thursday to Sunday in place of the Seventh Sunday of Easter. For this reason, the Second Reading and Gospel on the Sixth Sunday may make use of the readings planned for the Seventh Sunday that would not otherwise be heard. The “grand finale” of the Feast of Pentecost wraps up the Season of Easter, and then we plunge back into the cycle of Ordinary Time.

Whatever readings are chosen, all of them are “high points” in the New Testament. The first reading takes us into the heart of the Christian community as it wrestles with the question of to how to incorporate Gentiles who have not converted first to Judaic practices into the Church. 

The Second Reading comes from the Book of Revelation in its grand moments of conclusion, showing the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven or hearing the promise of the Parousia, the second coming of Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega. 

The Gospel brings us back to the Last Supper, with John’s account of the last words of Jesus to His followers on the night before He died. The promise of the coming of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, or the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, calling on His Father to share with His disciples and with “those who will believe in Me through their word” unity is experienced in the heart of the Trinity. Thus, we are drawn into the very flow of Trinitarian life.

When we struggle in the practice of our faith in a world that resists the truth we have to offer, we can look to the first generation of Christians and realize that they also experienced many challenges. The promise of the Holy Spirit to them and to us is the encouragement we need to persevere. Pope Francis has often spoken of the greatest difficulty of our time. We live not in a time of change, but in a change of era. That is, something is happening all around us, and in us, that is bigger than all of us.

Couples who are in love with each other often say that their love and the relationship they share are “bigger than both of us.” The whole is always greater than the sum of the parts. God is working in us through the power of His Spirit to bring about a greater receptivity to the truth of the Gospel. The same Spirit that led the first disciples to address the problems they faced is at work among us and will see us through to the fulfillment of God’s plan to bring all nations together in praise of His Name.

Some difficulties that the first generation of Christians faced have been overcome. It has been centuries since folks worried about eating meat sacrificed to idols and how to work with different sensibilities concerning dietary laws. We do, of course, still argue about what we eat and what we are to wear, but that is often a question of generational ideas.  

Some difficulties continue to plague us, such as the fulfillment of Christ’s teachings on marriage and relationships. We have discovered many new questions that come from the great diversity of lifestyles and cultures that are part of a global Church. Nonetheless, we do have the promise of the Spirit of Unity, Who will take all that belongs to Christ and form it in us, if we are open to the action of grace.Pentecost will come, and the Spirit of the Living God will bring us to the new world that God wants to establish among us. If we keep our eyes fixed on the heavenly Jerusalem and live in expectation of the coming of the Lord, we will accomplish the responsibilities that flow from our relationship with God and His Church. “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’”

We join together, believing in Jesus on account of the word spoken to us by His first disciples and by every generation of those faithful to Him, and we commit to the Unity that will see us through the days of trouble ahead. We cry out, “O God, let all the nations praise you!”