By Msgr. Joseph Prior • Posted May 30, 2025

(See the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter)

The unofficial start of summer has come. The rains will soon stop and be replaced by the blue skies and rising temperatures. Graduations are underway and schools will soon be closing for the summer break. Many people will be outside enjoying the beach, parks, trails and waterways basking in the bright sunshine (with sunscreen).

The rays come down and we can sense the sun’s nearness even though it is very far away. We can’t see the rays but we are conscious of their presence. If we are relaxing on the beach on a bright day, sitting or lying there even with eyes closed, we can feel the sun coming down on us. On days when it is overcast, we might not feel the rays but we know they are there coming through the clouds giving us light. Sometimes this experience of the sun is used analogously to describe the love of God.

God is love and his love abounds. He pours out that love on all creation and on everyone. We have seen it, for it has taken flesh in Christ Jesus. The love that knows no bounds embraces humanity in our joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies. The love empties himself completely to the point of passion and death. His resurrection manifests the victory of love and life. His ascension completes the journey to reunion and fills us with hope.

Jesus speaks of God’s love several times in the Gospel passage for this Sunday’s liturgy. He speaks of the mysterious union and communion we share. This union and communion is a share in the divine life of God. He offers these words as part of the “priestly prayer” at the dawn of his passion, at the Last Supper.

In this prayer, Jesus prays for all who place their faith in him and all who will come to believe through their witness: all of us. The one who is the “alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” speaks to his Father whom he loves. This love is expressed in obedience, confidence, trust and reliance. He prays “that they [us] may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”

The bond of unity for which Jesus prays is a participation in divine love. He prays that we may come to know that love in our lives – that we “may know that you [the Father] sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” He then again speaks of this love which will manifest the glory of God’s name.

The manifestation of this love is his passion that is now beginning. He goes onto say that it is through this love, his love, that we know the Father’s love for us. “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

God loves us, all of us, each of us. Accepting that love and living in that love is a mystery. We cannot see the rays of the sun but we know they are there. Even on days where we cannot see the sun we can sense its presence. Similarly, God’s love is ever present. We know that through Jesus – even when we cannot sense it or see it.

Perhaps in these summer months when we are more acutely aware of the sun, we might think of the Son and remember the Father who loves him is the Father who loves us.

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Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish, Penndel, and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.