7th Sunday of Easter 2023
Acts 1:12-14; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11
The days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost are a betwixt and between time. What are we to do with them? Presumably, we should do what the apostles and disciples did during that time. What was that?
St. Luke tells us, both in his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles. In the Gospel, which is read on Ascension Thursday in Year C (so not this year) he says that they “worshipped Him, and went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God”. In the Acts, he adds that they went back to the upper room, and joined in prayer “with one heart and mind”, as the Lectionary fails to translate it, with the women, and with Our Lady, and with others of Jesus’ relations.
“Hang on a minute,” you may say, “we have heard preachers say that the apostles were in fear until the Holy Spirit came”. Naughty preachers! Careless preachers! Preachers who haven’t read the scriptures properly! The scriptures tell us that they were “full of joy” and that they “prayed together with one heart and mind”.
Where, then, does this idea come from that they were cowering in fear? It comes from a misreading of the Gospel which we hear at Pentecost and which, if these preachers had half an eye and three quarters of a brain cell, they would realise relates to events on Easter Sunday evening, and is read at Pentecost because it mentions the Risen Christ breathing the Holy Spirit into them.
So we should be full of joy; we should be continually praising God, and we should be praying “with one heart and mind”. With whom should we be praying? We should be praying with one another, and with the whole Church throughout the world and throughout the ages.
We should be praying with the infant Church, as it gathered in the upper room, and as it continues to pray with us today. Of whom did it consist? Again, St. Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles. There were the eleven (in other words, the twelve minus Judas) there were women, there was Our Lady, and there were others of Jesus’ relations.
Have you seen depictions of that scene? Who were pictured in it? I would bet you ten bob that you saw Our Lady and the apostles. Did you see any women apart from Our Lady? Did you see Our Lord’s other relations?
I would lay odds that you didn’t. Here, the translators of the Jerusalem Bible are among those at fault. Firstly, in today’s reading, they lump “Mary, the mother of Jesus” in with the other women, whereas the biblical text sets her apart, as she was already filled with the Holy Spirit. Secondly, in the reading used at Pentecost, the Lectionary states that “the apostles” had met together, whereas the text says that they had “ALL” met together; presumably, all those mentioned today.
Who then received the Holy Spirit? It seems fair to assume that it was the whole Church—not only the apostles, but the women and the relations as well: Uncle Tom Cobbley, Auntie Thomasina Cobbley, and all.
Right then, let’s return to what we should be doing. We should be full of joy, we should be continually praising God, we should be praying with one heart and mind with the whole Church, and we should be opening our hearts and minds in preparation for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let’s get on with it!
