GOSPEL, John (17: 11-19)
Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
The Gospel of the Lord
REFLECTION
“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
Jesus invites us to a perfect unity such as between the Father and Son.
We find that we feel conflicted. However when the Spirit enlightens our conscience, we are driven to seek the truth. However, the temptations to which the flesh is subjected can dominate the spirit. Paul said:
“For what I do is not the good that I desire, but the evil that I do not want to do, that I continue to do” (Romans 7:19)
“21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (Romans 7: 21–23)
Jesus was also a being of flesh and spirit, but he did not give in to temptation. We can always turn to Him in seeking unity and peace because He understands our struggle and how to overcome it. As Paul said:
“(…) we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses; but one who, like us, was tempted in everything, but without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
Most importantly, we can count on Him to help restore our soul’s inner unity.
As we strive every day and every week to follow Christ’s path, we feel greater harmony between the spiritual and the physical, until our physical bodies are transformed from “instruments of iniquity” to “instruments of justice for God. (Romans 6:13)
May God hear the Saviour’s prayer and lead us all to be one with Them.
PRAYER
We thank you, God the Father, because in Christ you chose us and consecrated us in the truth, to live with you and with him without being of the world.
It gives us strength to be spokespersons for the good news and to accompany our brethren in the difficult conquest of the meaning of life.
Moreover, to all who suffer setbacks because of you, Lord, give them your Spirit of peace and joy in their pain. Amen.