A petition for the future Church (J 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, you 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”.
In these words, everyone should feel honored by Jesus. Because it is every believer who, thanks to their (the apostles') words, believed in Jesus. How important we are for Jesus when he prays for us at that moment. What is he praying for? Well, he prays for the unity of all believers. However, this is not such ordinary unity. This is to be the true unity that is between the Divine Persons in the Holy Trinity. And this unity is incredible! This is one Love, one Spirit, one Will. The people themselves are not capable of such a perfect unity with one another. Unity is a gift from God. Therefore, Jesus fervently prays for this gift for everyone. But for what such unity between people?
Such unity produces beautiful fruits of love. These fruits are visible to others. By unity, ordinary believers become witnesses of Jesus, like the apostles. They live God, carry the Word, and in a way continue the mission of Jesus himself! The world needs love. The world is thirsty for love! The world is sick for lack of love! What is happening in the world today is the result of a lack of love! All believers have by their lives to convince the world of God's love for man, which was fully revealed in Jesus. They are to convinced, therefore, that God sent Jesus - His Son, to people so that He would reveal to them the true Face of God, and that is Love. Jesus fulfilled his mission perfectly thanks to his union with the Father. Now he is asking for each of us that we may fulfill our mission as he did. Jesus gave everything we need for our assignment.
This prayer of Jesus is not only a petition addressed to the Father. Jesus is saying these words in the face of his impending passion and death. Thus, the words of Jesus bear the features of a kind of testament. It can be said that the unity he talks about is also a task for every human being. We need to pray for it and try to implement it. In this way, Jesus assures us that he has given us the gift of unity, that unity in which he lives with the Father. He says that he has given us his glory which the Father has given him. He loved us with the love that is between them. We have, as it were, the assurance of having this unity, because everything that is needed for it has already been placed in us. Our task is to realize this unity. We try to fulfill the requests of a dying person who is already close to death. And Jesus expects us to take His words seriously. Openness to the gift of unity is a condition for the apostolic character of the Church. Only thanks to unity, which is the unity of God himself, can the Church proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. Only thanks to this unity can he reveal to the world the face of God - LOVE. Only in this way can it drag lost souls with it.
Let us admit that we have not yet realized the importance of Jesus' High Priestly Prayer. Yes, we felt that something important was happening, but we did not realize that we were all immersed in it. In these last moments, Jesus does not think about himself, but about the Church that will arise. He prays for each of us, and at the same time with this prayer he assigns us a task. He confesses to God how much he has given us, but this gift obliges us to do something. We cannot waste the gift we have received. We cannot ignore the task to which we have been committed. In this prayer, we see how seriously Jesus is taking us. We see that our life is not like that of any other creature. It has a deeper meaning given to it by God Himself. Despite our smallness in the universe, we have been distinguished, brought out and placed almost on a par with Jesus. For we have been brought into the unity of the Holy Trinity. This unity is not like the Trinity, but it is the unity of the Trinity. Only because of this, just as Jesus has fulfilled the will of God, the Church will fulfill her task given to her by God.
Without the LOVE of God in us, we cannot be the Church. Without God's life in us, we don't make the Church. It is God who provides the true life for the Church. It is the Holy Spirit who is the unity of the Church. The priestly prayer of Jesus makes us aware of the extraordinary nature of our vocation in the Church. We are her members. We are to be one living organism that functions properly only when all the members work together. Being only human, we are not able to ensure perfect unity for this organism, which, although it has a visible, external, institutional form, is spiritual. Therefore, we are to open ourselves to the gift of Jesus, which he speaks of, in order to fulfill the mission given to us. Not to be single people, but one in God.
Jesus set an extraordinary task for each of us. Let us pray that we will be able to understand it to some extent and that we will try to fulfill it as best as possible.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george