Sunday 1th er June 2025

7rd Easter Sunday – Year C

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1st reading: Acts 7,55-60

Psaume : 96 (97),1-2b,6.7c,9

2rd reading: Revelation 22,12-14.16-17.20

Gospel: John 17,20-26

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We are in tension between Heaven and earth. On Thursday, we heard the reproach made to the apostles by the angels for keeping their eyes fixed on heaven: “Why are you standing there staring at the sky?” And today we hear Stephen contemplating the open sky, staring into the sky and seeing the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Yes, we must keep our eyes raised to Heaven, to this horizon toward which we are walking. And certainly, the sky of the cosmos evokes another Heaven toward which we are walking.

But at the same time, we know that Jesus continues to dwell among us, and above all, Jesus calls us to love as he loved us, that is, to live on this earth by looking at what is happening around us. And in a certain way, we have this double gaze: this gaze towards Heaven and this gaze towards the earth, which inevitably puts us in a kind of tension. This tension is resolved, one could say, in the very person of Jesus.

You have heard it both in the Books of Revelation and the Gospel: this announcement of the coming of the Lord—this second coming, what is called the Parousia, the glorious manifestation of the Lord that we await while watching in faith. This is the whole spiritual exercise that the Church invites us to do in the time of Advent: to rework within ourselves this expectation of the coming of the Lord in glory. And we have also heard this will of the Lord to dwell in us: “I have made known to them your name, and will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” The Lord wants to make his home within us. He wants to stay with us, even more than we want to welcome him. In one of her poems called "The Sacristans of Carmel," which has many stanzas, Thérèse writes in the second stanza:

2. Heaven, O supreme mystery!

hides under a humble bread

For Heaven is Jesus Himself,

Coming to us every morning.

Heaven is Jesus himself... In the person of Jesus, Heaven is present, that is to say, the Kingdom, that is to say, the intimate life of the Holy Trinity. The whole challenge of our life as Christians is to learn to welcome this presence of the Lord and to live from the presence of the Lord.

At the same time, the Lord is no longer there: since the Ascension we no longer see Jesus, he sits at the right hand of the Father, we proclaim him in the Credo ; and at the same time he is mysteriously present among us in different ways, through his word, through the sacraments, but also in the mystery of the Church: " where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them " says the Lord (Mt 18,20:XNUMX). Thérèse is particularly sensitive to seeking Jesus in the Holy Scriptures and in particular in the Gospel.

It is at the very end of Manuscript C, which she wrote in June 1897, that she says:

Since Jesus has ascended to Heaven, I can only follow Him by the traces He left, but how luminous these traces are, how fragrant they are!! I have only to cast my eyes into the Holy Gospel, immediately I breathe in the perfumes of the life of Jesus and I know which way to run… It is not to the first place, but to the last that I rush. (MsC 36v). I translate: to imitate the Lord.

We must therefore seek this presence of the Lord, learn to welcome it: welcome it in meditation on the Holy Gospels and more broadly on the Holy Scriptures, welcome it through the sacraments, in particular the sacrament of the Eucharist. Thérèse will cry out in the offering to merciful love: remain in me as in the tabernacle. This presence of Jesus in us which is nourished by the Eucharist is not limited to the moment of the celebration of the Mass, and indeed, this presence of Jesus in us is deeply linked to faith, since Paul says to the Ephesians: “May Christ Jesus dwell in your hearts through faith.” (Eph 3,17:XNUMX). It is therefore a question of welcoming the Lord.

This is why the Spirit is given to us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, when it speaks to us about the Holy Spirit, tells us this:

The Spirit prepares men, anticipates them by his grace, to draw them towards Christ. He reveals to them the risen Lord, He reminds them of his word and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present to them the mystery of Christ, eminently in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to put them in communion with God, in order to make them bear “much fruit” (Jn 15:5.8.16, 737, XNUMX). (CCC XNUMX)

In this time between Ascension and Pentecost, the Church truly invites us to rekindle our prayer to the Holy Spirit, our welcome of the Holy Spirit. And I invite all those who have not yet received the beautiful sacrament of Confirmation, who have only been baptized, to rush to their parish, to go see their priest and ask them to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, that is, the fullness of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And as you know, there is no age limit for receiving the sacraments... at any age, we can receive them. Christ wants to dwell in us: “Father, those you have given me, I want I want" : Jesus gives orders to his Father!? — that where I am, they may be them too with me." But if Jesus comes to make his home in us, am I where Jesus is? It would be a shame if Jesus were in us and we weren't! If we lived outside of ourselves, if we were attracted by many things outside and if we didn't take the time to collect ourselves, that is to say, to unify ourselves by joining this deep heart where the Lord is. And when we understand this, we understand that the life of prayer is not reserved for monks and nuns or Carmelites.

Reserving the life of prayer for monks and nuns is like wanting to reserve breathing only for high mountain climbers. We all need to breathe; we all need to collect ourselves in silence to join this presence of the Lord who wants to make his home within us. And no one can say: I don't have the time. Who can't take at least 5 minutes a day of true silence to join the Lord present within them? It's simply a matter of decision.

Why is it important to join this presence of Jesus, to live with Jesus? Because it is he who can change us, it is he who can change our hearts. The Lord came for the salvation of all men and it is clear today that many do not know the Lord, that many are not in a position to welcome this salvation simply because they have not had this encounter with the Savior. And what does the Lord tell us? He tells us: Father, may they be one in us — he speaks of his disciples: I pray not only for those who stand here, but also for those who will believe in me through their word ", that is, us. " That they may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. "And he continues: " That they may be made perfect in one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. ». This unity, this unity of the Church, which the Lord communicates to her through his death and resurrection, we must welcome and live it at all levels. Live it in our families which, founded on the sacrament of marriage, are small Churches, live it in our Christian communities, live it in all the activities of the Church, and also live it at the broader level of the encounter of the different Churches, of the ecclesial communities. It is fortunate that the Holy Father, Pope Leo, has from the outset manifested this desire for unity which is inscribed in his motto. And I quote him, in the inaugural Mass of the pontificate:

We are all constituted as "living stones" (1 Pet 2,5:359), called by our baptism to build the edifice of God in fraternal communion, in the harmony of the Spirit, in the coexistence of diversity. As Saint Augustine affirms: "The Church is made up of all those who are in harmony with their brothers and sisters and who love their neighbor" (Discourses 9:XNUMX).

This, brothers and sisters, I would like to be our first great desire: a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes leaven for a reconciled world.

 And a few days later, with a meeting of the different Churches and ecclesial communities, he said to them:

This unity can only be a unity in faith. As Bishop of Rome, I consider one of my priority duties to seek the restoration of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[…] Our communion is realized […] to the extent that we converge towards the Lord Jesus. The more faithful and obedient we are to him, the more united we are with one another. Therefore, as Christians, we are all called to pray and work together to achieve step by step this goal which is and remains the work of the Holy Spirit. (Leo XIV – Address to the representatives of other Churches or ecclesial communities, May 19, 2025)

May we keep in our hearts this same desire to build unity.

And Thérèse in a letter to Céline, very early since it is letter 65, quotes a sentence that she read I don't know where, she says to him:

Some time ago I found a saying that I find very beautiful. […] “Resignation is still quite distinct from the will of God, there is the same difference that exists between union and unity. In union we are still two, in unity we are only one.” Oh! Yes, let us be one with Jesus, let us despise everything that passes, our thoughts must be directed to Heaven since that is the dwelling place of Jesus. (Letter 65 to Céline – October 20, 1888)

Well, let us make this prayer our own at this time when we are preparing to allow ourselves to be renewed by the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Let us ask for this grace to live in unity with Jesus and to build unity among ourselves by welcoming this grace.

Let us ask for the grace to know how to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit, to know how to live with Jesus permanently in the depths of ourselves so that the Lord, through us, with us, and in us, can continue to save the world.

Amen

Father Emmanuel Schwab, Rector of the Shrine