Scripture Reflection - May 17, 2026

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts. 1:12-14;          Psalm 27:1,4,7-8;     1 Peter 4:13-16;      John 17:1-11a

In the Celtic Tradition, “thin places” are the places where the veil between this life and the next, between us and our loved ones already enthroned with God, is very thin, and we can see, feel, and sometimes even touch and be touched by them.

In distinct ways, all our readings on this Seventh Sunday of Easter evoke these thin places. Jesus has already ascended into heaven, and the disciples have returned to the Upper Room in Jerusalem. They are now in a liminal, in-between space. Just think of all that the Upper Room evokes! It is the place of the Last Supper, the Passover Meal during which Jesus identified Judas as his betrayer, where Peter pledged a fidelity he would soon deny, and where Jesus offered himself as Bread and Wine (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and washed his disciples’ feet (John), setting an example.

After the crucifixion, the Upper Room became a hide-out for the Apostles in their fear. Meanwhile, the women prepared ointments to go and anoint Jesus’ body after the Sabbath. When they arrived, the tomb was empty, and they encountered Jesus alive. Subsequent encounters with the Risen One occurred on the road to Emmaus and in the Upper Room itself.

The Upper Room had been a place of fearful hiding. Gradually, it became a place of encounter with the Risen One. Now, after the Ascension, it becomes a place of expectant hope as the ones who had encountered Jesus Risen await the promised Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who will remind them of all that Jesus told them and empower them to establish the church through the fearless proclamation of the Gospel in the face of every kind of persecution. The Apostles, and the women who accompany them, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, are in a liminal space, a thin place. Jesus is now enthroned in heaven, and his presence on earth continues in the community of disciples who now constitute his body.

The entire Easter Season is a liminal space in which we celebrate the glory of the Resurrection even as we engage the ongoing suffering of the world we inhabit. In this time between Ascension and Pentecost, that liminality is intensified as we await the coming of the Holy Spirit. In our personal “Upper Rooms,” how do we experience this liminality, these thin places between the world to come and our loved ones who already inhabit it, and the concrete, suffering world we inhabit now? When the Holy Spirit comes to us anew, how might we inhabit this present world in a way that makes it begin to resemble the eternal new creation to come?

Sr. Kathleen McManus, OP