"This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ." (John 17: 3) On this Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost, we encounter the core of our faith as Christians.

In Acts, we have the example of our first Christian community---the apostles, some of the women, Jesus' brothers, and Jesus' ever-faithful mother Mary---gathered in prayer on their return to Jerusalem. The upper room is no longer filled with fear. It is filled with the wonder of God's work in the Resurrection and Ascension of their beloved teacher, Jesus.

There is a sense of hope and anticipation in Jesus' promise to remain with them in Spirit until the end of time.

In the alternate opening prayer, we read "May his presence among us lead to the vision of unlimited truth and unfold the beauty of [God's] love". This is tempered in 1 Peter by the reality that as Christians we will "share in the sufferings of Christ" but "the Spirit of glory and of God will rest upon us". Thus, Jesus prays for the ones God gave him who remain in the world because they have understood and believed that Jesus came from and was sent by God, "I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them." (John, 17)

We are the successors of these first followers of Jesus and have received the gifts of Baptism and Eucharist. Jesus is also with us in Spirit and continues to pray for us. Some of us continue to suffer persecution because of our beliefs. Yet many of us can freely practice our beliefs but are viewed as living countercultural lives. Nevertheless, we must reach out to those in need of the basic necessities of life as well as healing, forgiveness, peace, and justice.

May Jesus' presence in us help us to bring God's love to all as we share the vision and the message of the Risen and Ascended Christ.

Sr. Beryl Herdt, O.P.