The Missionary Decade. Third Day — “God is with us — we belong to God”

Sunday, June 1

A reading of the Holy Gospel according to John 17:1–11

”When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent…” “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Reflections on the third day of the Decade

A modern person feels the need to belong to some community: to a family, small or large community, culture, people, language, profession, vocation. And despite all the technical possibilities of social communication, she longs for a real personal connection with another person. The most special moment is when one person says to another: “I am yours”, “I am yours” or “you are mine”, “you are mine”. In this moment, a person feels that he “belongs” to someone, that he is part of some larger, important mutual connection. When a person thinks about God, the connection between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit becomes clear to him, because such a connection finds analogs in human experience. In God, everything is common: will, mind, life: “and all that is mine is Yours, and Yours is mine” (John 17, 10). A person who does not know God thinks that God lives his own separate life, and why should He interfere in my life, or should I interfere in His life. But the Kondakion of the Ascension helps us to understand that man is invited to participate in God’s life: “what is on earth, connecting with the heavenly. You call out to those who love You: I am with you and no one is against you!”. In a special way, God is present for us in the Holy Eucharist: “Take, eat: this is my body. Drink from it all of you, this is my blood of the New Testament…” (Mt. 26, 26–28). Christ says to man: “I am yours, and you are mine,” and man says to Christ: “I am Yours, and You are mine.”

Reflections in time of war

God created man out of love and for love. And sin deprives a person of feeling God’s love, and then a person replaces it with self-love, which leads to even greater injuries both at the personal level and at the social, even international level. War is the height of hatred and malice. The Russian “authority” and even their so-called “church” declare that they are fighting against the “criminal Kyiv regime” and “the West that has fallen into Satanism”, but in fact they themselves, sanctioning an unjust war of aggression against Ukraine, have become a victim of the devil. The Russian-Ukrainian war may become the beginning of the Third World War, or it may, on the contrary, become the time of another victory over the devil and the conversion of enemies. This perspective seems impossible to some, but “nothing is impossible for God” (Lk. 1, 37). Today, Christ himself intercedes for his own: “I pray for them, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, because they are yours. And all that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine, and I am glorified in them” (John 17, 9–10). Our salvation consists in fully belonging to God, as we sing at the Liturgy: “let us give ourselves, and each other, and our whole life to Christ God.” For “he who secretly slanders his neighbor,” says the Lord through King David, “I will bring him to silence. Whoever has a proud eye and pride in his heart, I will not tolerate him” (Ps. 101 (100), 5). And in order to fully belong to God, we need a deep conversion of our hearts, we need fervent prayer — especially prayer for the conversion of our enemies — and works of mercy, we need unshakable faith in God and the unification of all our forces in helping our army, as well as people who have suffered as a result of the war.

Prayer

"When the disciples watched as you, Christ, ascended to sit with the Father, the angels flying before you cried out, Lift up the gates, lift them up, for the King has ascended into the light of the Lord's glory!" (Matins of the Feast of the Ascension).

Mission tasks: 

1. Personal level: Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to help us relive our encounter with the Risen Christ and to renounce once and for all formalism in our Christian life.
2. Parish level: Let us consider how we can help people in our parish who are our neighbours, namely, the elderly, those with special needs, single-parent families, etc. (for example, by buying bread or medicine, simply talking with them, etc.).
3. Missionary level: Let us consider how we can assist our neighbours, namely the elderly, those with special needs, single-parent families, etc., who are not members of our parish.

See also

June 8 The Missionary Decade. Day Ten — Sunday of Pentecost — “Our mission: to carry the Holy Spirit to others” June 7 The Missionary Decade. Day Nine — “Tend my sheep” June 6 The Missionary Decade. Day Eight — “Christian family is a domestic Church”