STM Reflection

 

Reflection: The Seventh Sunday of Easter

he-is-risen-easter“And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.” Jesus speaks these words on the 7th Sunday of Easter, as He prepares for his glorious ascension into Heaven. He prays for us to God the Father and reminds us that we are His chosen people, tasked with glorifying the Lord by our lives.

Though tender and profound, this moment might also leave us with a sense of loss — a feeling that has touched us all, in one way or another, since last we gathered together on campus. We now find ourselves removed from our classes, our community, our end-of-term traditions and celebrations. We have lost our work and summer plans, the comfort of routine and the rhythms of daily life. We have lost the embraces of friends and loved ones. We have encountered a desert of illness and isolation, of uncertainty and even death. And now, in our hour of need, we see our Lord and shepherd soon to depart from earthly light.

But Jesus, like the people and places that may seem distant in these trying times, is never truly gone from us. He lives in our hearts every hour of every day. We are, and ever shall be, the body of the Church, the faithful, the ones who set the world ablaze with our love and radiate the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. The memory, wisdom, and spirit of our Lord is present in us, now and forever, for us and for those who are suffering in our midst. When we walk with Christ, we are never really alone.

The world Jesus left us is ours to change for the better. We are armed with the strength to lift ourselves up from sorrow. We are the keepers of light and truth, shouldering our burdens with the grace of our risen Lord to sustain us. We are called to go on hoping, praying, living out the faith in whatever way we can, even when Jesus is gone from our sight. Distant but with us still, He offers Himself anew each day in our words and deeds.

As we weather the challenges still to come, during this pandemic and beyond, let us call to mind the loving presence of those we can no longer see, but carry in the depths of our hearts.

Katie Painter '23

Katie is an undergraduate in Timothy Dwight College