Waiting Is Difficult

Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 24, 2020

SCRIPTURE
Acts 1:12-14/1 Pt 4:13-16/Jn 17:1-11a

Carol Soderholm

PREACHING
In these days after Easter between Ascension and Pentecost, we gather with the disciples in the upper room waiting for the Spirit to transform the Church around the world. In today's Gospel, Jesus prays for his followers and for their mission in his name. Amid religious, social, and economic turmoil and division, we seek the unity Jesus had with his Father. The Church needs transformation and so does our society and the world at large. We wait and pray.

But waiting is the hardest thing we do. We are waiting for this pandemic to loosen its grip on us. We are waiting for the state governor to release us to "Phase 3" so we can open up more. We are waiting for a national leader to give us clear guidelines: guidelines all Americans can depend on. We are waiting for life to go back to normal, to what we knew. We are waiting for the unity that Jesus had with his Father: the unity he prays for us to have. We wait and pray.

It feels like this unity will never come. Since waiting can be hard, the disciples go back to the upper room where they gathered after the crucifixion and all of them "constantly devoted themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers." All who loved him devoted themselves to prayer as they waited and watched. That's our calling. As Thomas Merton said, we may not know where we are headed or even see the road ahead. But we wait and pray and watch for His coming. He will come again on Pentecost. Amen.

Carol Soderholm, Dominican Associate of Sinsinawa