7th Week of Easter (R)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Dominic Priory, NOLA
Jesus prays to the Father “not only for [the disciples], but also for those who will believe in [him] through their word.” He makes an extraordinary statement while praying, “Father, they are your gift to me.” A gift, properly understood, is freely given and freely received. A gift cannot be requested, earned, borrowed, coerced or stolen. A gift cannot create a debt or an obligation. Nor can something belonging to another be given as a gift. Likewise, receiving a gift cannot be forced or obliged. Giving and receiving a gift – for it to be truly free – must be entirely unattached from any and all conditions that muddle the exchange. When the Lord says that we are a gift to him from the Father, he is saying that we, His creatures, first belonged to the Father. Now, we belong to Christ. If we are now one with Christ in this free exchange, then we also belong to one another as gifts. Our growth in holiness depends in part on the difficult task of being gifts to each other, living daily as freely given and freely received subjects of charity and mercy. As the kids say these days, “The struggle is real.” But the struggle is more than worth the work.
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