7th Sunday of Easter 2026
Acts 1:12-14; 1Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11a
Five things strike me about today’s Readings. They are a misunderstanding, two corrections, an encouragement arising out of a warning, and a location.
Firstly, the misunderstanding: what mood were the disciples in when they returned to the Upper Room after the Ascension? This is one of my bugbears: I return to it every year, but often feel that I am swimming against the tide. The answer is that they were joyful, and they were focused. On what were they focused? They were focused on prayer, as they prepared for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
What were they not? They were not cowering in fear. Luke in his Gospel, which we don’t read this year, reports that “They went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.”
Why, then, do people try to tell you that the disciples were afraid until Pentecost? It is because, at Pentecost, we use a Gospel passage which relates, not to that day, but to Easter Sunday, when they were indeed afraid, but they received a visit from the Risen Christ. I do wish they wouldn’t use that Gospel at Pentecost. I understand why they do, because it recounts the giving of the Holy Spirit through the breath of Christ, but it has given rise to so much misunderstanding, so much confusion.
Right, that’s the misunderstanding: what about the corrections? They come at the end of the First reading. The Jerusalem Bible, to which we became accustomed over more than fifty years, related that, in the Upper Room, the disciples “joined in continuous prayer”. Well, they may have done, but that’s not what the original Greek says. The word is homothumadon, which means “with one heart” or, as the new translation correctly puts it, “with one accord”.
The second correction is much more serious, because it relates to the role of Our Lady. The Jerusalem Bible talked about “several women, INCLUDING Mary, the Mother of Jesus”, thus lumping Our Lady in among the other women. This is a ghastly howler. The original Greek says “women AND Mary, the Mother of Jesus”, again correctly translated now, putting Our Lady in a category of her own, which of course she was, having been filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of her own Immaculate Conception in her own mother’s womb.
We have, then, the disciples, assisted by the Spirit-filled Mary, unafraid and praying with one accord for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We should be doing the same, including seeking Our Lady’s help.
What about the encouragement arising out of a warning? That comes in the Second Reading, which is from the First Letter of St. Peter. We are warned that we shall share in Christ’s sufferings, but we are told to rejoice, because it means that we have the Spirit of glory and of God resting on us. In the sporting world, there is a saying “no pain, no gain”: this is the spiritual equivalent.
Finally, the location: this relates to the Gospel, which is taken from what is known as “the High Priestly prayer of Jesus” and located by John within the context of the Last Supper. In it, Jesus who, as the true High Priest, is about to offer the supreme sacrifice of His own life, prays for us, and dedicates us to the Father. We belong, He tells us, both to the Son and to the Father. Over all, that means that we have both the gift and the responsibility of praying for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, the world, and the whole of creation.
