Seventh Sunday of Easter – Sr. Liane Delsuc, SNDdeN
May 17, 2026
John 17: 1 – 11a
The gospel today presents us with the priestly prayer of Jesus, his last teaching to his disciples before entering into his passion. Jesus reveals his deep love for his disciples as he reviews his life, telling the Father how he shared with them everything he knew and the gospel writer says, “They believed.” Did they really understand? Probably not yet. So Jesus prays for them, “That they may be one as we are one,” revealing the possibility of intimate relationship with their God.
Jesus had protected them, guarded them, given them God’s word and throughout his short ministerial life had shown God’s compassion for those suffering marginalization from society: the sick, the poor, the women, the children, those judged as sinners. In doing so, Jesus challenged the religious and political oppression of his time, angering the authorities, who then wanted to be rid of him.
Jesus knew that violence destroys both the victim and the perpetrator, so he surrendered into the injustice, violence and hatred, raising his arms on the cross, saying, “The violence ends here.” How often we are disheartened and even enraged by the injustices and violence in our world as we awaken each day to new horrors. And how hard it is not to wish harm on those who are destroying others’ lives. But we are called to follow the Prince of Peace, to seek the path of nonviolence as his disciples.
Jesus prays again for his disciples, “Consecrate them in the truth,” hoping that they (and we) might live in the truth of God’s unconditional love, such an awesome gift. Do we believe it?
As he faced his death, he could say to his disciples that he wanted their joy to be complete like his.
Because of his trust in the absolutely unconditional love of God, Jesus was able to look back on his life and his longing to bring goodness into our world and know deep joy, a joy we can all experience when we recognize we are embraced by Love and like Jesus, give ourselves in love. Let us reflect on how we have felt when we have loved and been loved. Have we known joy?
John 17: 1 – 11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Meet Sister Liane Delsuc, SNDdeN
