7th Sunday of Easter - 2026 - Year A

Jeff Bagnall • 15 May 2026

Thursday is t he feast of the Ascension . It’s not that Jesus has left this world, but rather that He is everywhere and especially in all other human beings whom we meet! But now to Sunday’s readings —-

The first reading is just after the introduction to the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus’ last words to his disciples before His departure into heaven, are “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;” then as an outline for Luke’s story of the spread of early Christianity, He says, “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8); this expansion of Christianity is the story Luke tells in Acts. Our reading today comes after the account of the Ascension, when we are given the impression that the disciples’ world seems to have been turned upside down: they are devastated; first of all Jesus died before establishing the Kingdom, and although He showed Himself to be alive after that, now He has gone and left them to get on with it and they feel abandoned. So what are we told they did? They prayed; and in this short account there is an important lesson for us! We don’t know what they prayed, but I think when one is at a really low ebb in life, one should pray to God about whatever one feels: let down, pointlessness, need for guidance etc. and maybe take a look at the second reading.

In the second reading it is Christians who are likely to be persecuted who are being addressed. We hear some sayings very hard to take about suffering and the recommended attitude towards it, as well as the hope of glory – but that’s in the future. We know that this approach was lived out in Christ’s life on earth. We learn from His prayer in Gethsemane in the Gospels that Jesus found it quite hard towards the end of His life, for He prayed “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” And perhaps this incident and prayer is recorded there to help us when we suffer, and it is definitely suitable for the early, persecuted, Christians as well as for us today.

In the gospel , we have the final section of the long passages after the Last Supper in John’s Gospel. It uses the literary form of a Farewell speech. At first He speaks for the last time about glory; it has been a recurring theme in this Gospel – He showed it in so many recounted incidents in His life; He prays also about eternal life – the timeless life of the Godhead which He also shares in. References to the ‘hour’ have also been made in lots of the stories in John’s Gospel where it was something awaited, but now it has finally come. In addition Jesus prays about the disciples, indeed He prays for them! They will continue Jesus’ task of revealing the glory of God in the world; but for now He is bidding them farewell; leaving them in the world. The world is the place where God is not yet revealed properly, so He prays for the disciples, because they have this task to do, in and for the world. This passage is sometimes called the priestly prayer, because it comes from one who calls down blessing, who supports belief, and does this for others who will do the actual work of revealing God’s glory in the (secular) world. It is you and I now who are those people tasked with this role, about whom this prayer is made; and Jesus is within the Godhead, and yet all that is His, is with us and working through us in this enormous but so important task.

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Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

6th Sunday of Easter - 2026 - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 8 May 2026

The first reading is from the point in Acts where Luke tells of the extension of Christianity beyond the confines of Judea and the limits of the Jewish religion. Christianity is spread by Philip, one of the ‘deacons’ appointed to help the Hellenists in Jerusalem (see last week’s first reading). He goes to the Samaritans, who had become separated from the Jewish faith when they intermarried with non-Jews centuries earlier, and who were despised by the Jews. We have mixed reports about them in the Gospels: Jesus sent the chosen twelve out saying “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans” (Matthew10:2-6); Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25ff); and in John’s Gospel (Chapter 4), Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman and many Samaritans come to believe in him through her testimony. Philip had been commissioned through the laying on of hands by the Apostles specifically to pastor the Hellenists in Jerusalem, but now we see him as a missionary (sometime translated as an evangelist – one who preaches the Good News) to the Samaritans. He is successful Luke tells us, because of his words and the miracles attributed to him; many of them are baptised; we recall that Peter had told the Jews, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38f). Peter’s words imply that baptism brings the gift of the Holy Spirit and is open to “whomever God will call.” But when the Apostles in Jerusalem hear of this they send Peter and John to lay their hands on the Samaritans for them to receive the Spirit. Behind this we might detect some edginess between the ‘mother’ church’s leaders and the successful evangelist, Philip, though it is not made explicit, for Luke when he was travelling with Paul stayed with Philip at his house in Caesarea (Acts 21:8-10). We learn from this reading about the growth of the Church both as a community of the Spirit and as an organised body (of Christ); the process will always be difficult and is still going on in the worldwide context of the Church to this day – we all play a part in this.

5th Sunday of Easter - 2026 - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 1 May 2026

In the reading from Acts ( Acts 6:1-7 ) we have an example of the early development of the institutional aspect of the Church. The instigation for this was the increase in the number of Christians from among the Hellenists – Jews who lived in the Diaspora, that is, outside of the Jewish homeland. The need for development resulted from a complaint from these Hellenists that the pastoral care of the members of their community was not being met because of a shortage of staff who might provide this. There was a general meeting and the Twelve leaders said that their particular responsibility was for prayer and preaching the word of God, and so they suggested that seven other people should be selected for the pastoral work that was needed. Those selected should have the appropriate qualities: good reputation, wisdom, and a life with God’s Spirit. They were selected by the people, and the Eleven laid their hands on them to commission them for this task. The passage concludes with Luke again telling us of the increase in numbers – the growth and development of the Christian communities was the main instigation for the writing of the Acts of the Apostles. We learn from this that the Church needs to develop and adapt to the different needs and circumstances that arise; this is much more complex and yet also more urgent now, for the church as we know it now is not only broken into different denominations but also is spread worldwide and the most numerous of all religions.