May 19, 2010
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears. And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated. Acts 20:31-32
I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. John 17:15-18
Piety
Jesus, speak to us in this world so that we may share your joy completely. You gave us your word, and still the world hated you and your followers because they did not belong to the world any more than you, Brother Jesus, belonged to the world. We can not run and hide from the world and the evil in it. However, send your spirit to protect us from the evil that is all around us. Amen.
Study
Today’s Gospel continues the final words of Jesus to the disciples at Passover before the beginning of the Passion. As the notes in the New American Bible point out, this is the "climax of the last discourse." As such, it also is call the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus addressed directly to the Father on behalf of the disciples much in the same way that the presider leads the Eucharistic Prayer during daily Mass.
The NAB notes point out that the prayer is one of petition for immediate and future disciples. Many phrases call to mind the Lord’s Prayer. Although technically still in the world, Jesus looks on his earthly ministry as a thing of the past. Whereas Jesus has up to this time stated that the disciples could follow him, now he wishes them to be with him in union with the Father.
Like Paul’s prayer in the first reading, these are the words that come from the heart right before the minister and people part ways. Both Jesus and Paul commission their companions to go into the world to carry on the ministry. However, Jesus also prays for the protection of the disciples from the evil in the world.
As this prayer concludes, the setting turns to the garden where Jesus goes to pray and meet his betrayer. When he had said this, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. (John 18:1-2)
Action
The landmark 1983 pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace, made a “definitive and decisive” moral judgment to say “no” to nuclear war. In 1993 in The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace, Catholic bishops argued: “The eventual elimination of nuclear weapons is more than a moral ideal; it should be a policy goal.”
The horribly destructive capacity of nuclear arms makes them disproportionate and indiscriminate weapons that endanger human life and dignity like no other armaments. Their use as a weapon of war is rejected in Church teaching based on just war norms.
Although teh bishops admit that they cannot anticipate every step on the path humanity must walk, the USCCB points with moral clarity to a destination that moves beyond deterrence to a world free of the nuclear threat.
U.S. President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on April 8, 2010. The New START Treaty: reduces deployed strategic warheads to 1,550, 30 percent below the existing ceiling; limits both nations to no more than 700 delivery vehicles; and includes new verification requirements.
The Treaty was submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification on May 13. Many groups are urging renewed advocacy with U.S. Senators the week of May 17-21. USCCB supports strong, bipartisan action to ratify the New START Treaty.
You can read more about the issue here with this USCCB Action Alert. http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/2010-05-14-aa-NewSTART.pdf
The Office of International Justice and Peace urges Catholics to contact your Senators during the week of May 17-21 and urge them to give bipartisan support to the New START Treaty because it makes our nation and world safer by reducing nuclear weapons in a verifiable way. Visit http://capwiz.com/catholicbishops/ or www.senate.gov to contact your Senators or go through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
