Thursday in the Seventh Week of Easter, May 20, 2021

John 17:20-26

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

“I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”  Earlier in his prayer for unity, the Lord Jesus said, “I gave them your word . . . Your word is truth.”  He is referring to the Apostles here.  The Lord gave them the Father’s word that is truth so that the Apostles might believe.  The “word” of the Father is the Son himself: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  This is the mystery of the Son who was sent and at the same time came of his own will.  This mystery resembles that of the Son who was raised by the Father from the dead, and rose by his own power.  It is the mystery of the Holy Trinity in which three distinct Persons exist in the purest unity with each other.  Jesus is revealing to us that the Holy Trinity operates in our salvation.  The Holy Trinity is not some abstract mathematical theory out in space somewhere, but is very close to us.  The Son comes down from heaven to teach us of God’s — the Holy Trinity’s — infinite love for us, and shows it to us in the horrific slaughter on the Cross; the Son shows that there is nothing he or the Father or the Holy Spirit would not do for us.  And in showing us the depths of their love, the Son at the same time effects our redemption, canceling out our impossible debt of sin against the majesty of the Almighty God.  The Son does not cancel our debt — obliterate it, really — and then disappear, leaving us on our own to ponder what to do now, but he eternally prays for “those who will believe in me through their word”, through the word of the Apostles.  While the Word came and was heard directly by the Apostles, the Apostles would “speak” the Word themselves to others in their own way, testifying to him: telling of his life and his commandments, and then practicing these commandments so as to be visible models of him.  These others could then become believers and, once baptized, in union with all who believe.

“I made known to them your name and I will make it known.”  That we may speak about the Word of God and imitate his life is a great privilege won for us by the Son.  And we do not do this on our own, left to our own devices, as it were, but the Son does this through us: I will make your name known, Father, through those who have already received it.