He has been telling the apostles about his crucifixion and death, remember? The possibility of losing him had terrified them, as we saw.

But then he rose again.

This too was a shock, a huge one. It was “unbelievable” for many of them, in the full sense of that word.

Some simply refused to accept it! But in time they got over “resurrection-shock.” All of them, even Philip, could let go of the sorrows of Jesus’ crucifixion and death and have some real joy for a change.

And then he told them he was going away, this time forever.

He did not exactly tell them, he let them overhear his great prayer to the Father. (7 Easter Gospel) A really huge jolt. Whiplash material. First it involved insurmountable sorrow and loss, followed then by out-of-your-mind astonishment and joy, but resulting in goodbye forever.

Jesus’ great prayer in the Gospel for the Seventh Sunday of Easter is one very helpful way in which he consoled them.* There he is praying not for the world but for the ones his Father gave him. His words aren’t about separation but just the opposite: the disciples are always to be with him, and with the Father as well, even to the end of time!

You and I, just like the disciples, need a lot of time to understand this.

Here is what Jesus is saying, in one interpretation:

The Father and I are one. When you see me you see the Father.
And I will be one with you in the same way the Father is with me.
We all will be present to each other in the oneness of love.

Then a funny thing happens. Instead of breaking in with a clownish “couldn’t you just show us the Father and forget all this talk about unity and oneness,” Phillip begins to listen as Jesus prays in a remarkable way.

In essence, Jesus says,

they have accepted your words, Abba, and they truly understand the fact that I came from you. They believe that you sent me.

What is it that they have accepted and believed? It is the power of God’s love even amid departures and loss.

And something else, something we saw last week, but could not identify yet. Jesus was so wide open to God that the two were completely at one. “Whoever sees me sees the Father,” he said. That is a very deep description of such love.

How does this make sense to us?

We need to have the Holy Spirit of God come to us tenderly and lift us into flight so we can see how the risen Christ works.

From such a vantage point, maybe Jesus would say something like the following to us:

I have shown you who God is and who I am. Now I go, like all human beings, back to the Father—your Father and my Father. This Holy Spirit of God I have been describing? It is no fantasy. I am going to send it into you, and as often as you accept it you are one with me and with the Father.