The Tuesday after the Ascension, June 1, 2022

John 17, 11-19

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

At the end of his Last Supper Discourse to the Apostles, the Lord Jesus prays to his Father for their unity.  This much-abused idea becomes very important when the Faith spreads to Gentile lands.  The converts there need to be assured and reassured that they are united to Christians throughout the world, whether they are of Gentile or Jewish origin.  This means that they can share their joys and sufferings with each other, and strengthen one another through prayers and shared graces.  They are now members of the Body of Christ.  The sources and expressions of their unity are their common doctrine, taught them by Christ and his Apostles and their successors; their worship of God which may take various forms locally and yet accomplishes what the Church wants it to do; and a common morality.

“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.”  Standing before his Father even now, the Lord Jesus pleads for us with this same prayer.  This unity is a real unity, grounded spiritually.  You and I who are baptized exist in a union comparable to that between the eternal Father and his Son.  “I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”  During his lifetime, the Lord gathered these men together as Apostles and protected them both from internal dissension and from exterior persecution.  This should be our prayer for the Church as well.  Judas, “the son of destruction” was “lost” because he rejected Jesus, despite the Lord’s love for him which even took the form of several warnings not to commit sin.  Judas, then, got himself “lost” in the darkness which has no end.  The Scriptures did not compel Judas to act as he did, but his actions caused the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

“But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.”  The Lord Jesus looks through his coming suffering and Death towards his return to the Father.  He thinks not of agony in the near present but of the joy beyond that.  This is how we should live.  We think of the words of the Psalm, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves” (Psalm 126, 5-7).  He prays that the Apostles will have joy in his joy.  If we truly love someone, that person’s happiness is very important to us so that we rejoice when that person rejoices as though for some good that has come to us.

“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”  The Lord looks to the future and sees that the Apostles and the Church are hated not only for preaching the word of God, but even for possessing it.  The “world”, that is the devil and his angels as well as their followers on earth, but also our fallen human nature which reacts against our attempts at self-discipline for the sake of carrying out the Lord’s commandments and for preaching the Gospel.  “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One.” The Apostles and the Church must remain for a period of time in the world in order to work for the conversion of those living upon it, even the Lord’s enemies.  Jesus does not ask God to take them out of the world before the proper time in order that every last individual person might have the chance to follow or reject him, even if that means enduring suffering.  The Lord does pray that the Father protect them from the devil, our adversary, who “as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5, 8).  By this, the Lord means to protect the faithful from losing their faith due to scandal and the enticements of the world.  “They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”  Our true home is in heaven with Jesus.  We do not build our houses on the shifting sands of time but on the rock of eternity, the Lord”# promises.

“Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.”  Consecrate them to yourself, Father, for their proclamation of the truth of the Gospel.  “As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”  The Son of God was purposefully sent into the world into to save souls.  Those who belong to him are also purposefully sent into the world.  As the Lord asks the Father to consecrate them to himself, the Son consecrates himself to them.  That is, he solemnly dedicates himself to those who believe in him so that they might spread the Gospel which the Father entrusted the Son to give to them.  The Lord Jesus is truly with us “to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28, 20), enabling us through his grace to do his most holy will as he did that of his Almighty Father.