Seventh Sunday of Pascha: Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea; The Holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him.
Acts 20:16-18, 28-36; John 17:1-13.
Read John 17:1-13
Our orientation toward the future is key to understanding our lives. Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hope is, by definition, oriented toward the future. And love – our connection to our deepest hopes – is the source of our investment in future outcomes. Our involvement with the future reveals how we deal with all aspects of our lives.
If we want to see the future, all we have to do is look at the prayers of Jesus Christ; if anyone’s prayers are to be answered, his will be. Jesus prays for the unity of apostolic witness to the unity of the Father and the Son. There have been digressions and divisions throughout history, but that is and will continue to be the sure lifeline to the only eternal future.
The unity in essence of the Father and the Son reveals to us any self-deception we may engage in when, with conflicting desires, we give preference to a more malleable conception of “God” which allows us to do what we want while avoiding the sometimes uncomfortably specific callings upon us that communion with Jesus Christ requires. It is a grace that every time we find ourselves brushing aside Jesus Christ’s teachings, we can know that we are then working at cross-purposes with God and correct ourselves. Jesus’s prayer is that the fulfillment of human joy consists in the undifferentiated glorification of him and God the Father. The future is now every time we participate in it by glorifying Jesus Christ by our obedience to him as God.