John 17:11b-19

Acts 20:28-38

Psalm 68:29-30, 33-35a, 35bc-36ab

John 17:11b-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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, your Son has asked you to keep me from the Evil One and to consecrate me in truth. Hear the priestly prayer of your Son today and grant his request. Keep me united to you and your Son and your Spirit.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Jesus’ Three Petitions in Jesus’ Prayer: In the Gospel, Jesus makes three petitions to the Father in his high priestly prayer. He first asks the Father to keep his disciples in the Father’s name so that they may be one. Jesus protected the disciples during his public ministry and kept them united in mind and heart. Now, Jesus is returning the Father, to reign at his right hand, and so he prays that the Father will keep them and protect them. In heaven, Jesus will continue his priestly intercession for the disciples before the Father’s throne of grace and will send the Holy Spirit to guide them to truth and protect them as Advocate. Jesus’ second petition asks the Father to keep his disciples from the Evil One. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to the Father with the petitions: “Lead us not into temptation” and “Deliver us from evil.” These two petitions recognize the efforts of Satan to frustrate the plan of God. Our prayer is not a plea for an easy life, for God allows us in his providence to be tried. These trials that he allows bring us to maturity and lead us from superficial piety to oneness with God’s will. When we ask, “Lead us not into temptation,” we express our awareness that the devil can do nothing against us unless God has permitted it beforehand. We ask God to remember that our strength goes only so far and ask him to be close to us with his protecting hand (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. I, 163). The last petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks the Father to deliver us and free us from evil or the Evil One. “In asking to be liberated from the power of evil, we are ultimately asking for God’s Kingdom, for union with his will, and for the sanctification of his name” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. I, 167). Jesus’ third petition in his priestly prayer asks the Father to consecrate the Apostles in the truth. Sanctity or holiness belongs properly to God alone. To sanctify or to consecrate means to hand something over to God. Because something or someone is consecrated, they are given to God, and now they exist for others and are given to others. 

2. Three Consecrations: In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks about three consecrations or sanctifications. The first consecration is the sending of the Son into the world by the Father (John 10:36). This means that “God is exercising a total claim over this man, ‘setting him apart’ for himself, yet at the same time sending him out for the nations” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 87). Jesus belongs totally to God and is sent out to all men and women to bring them into communion with the Father. Second, the Son sanctifies himself (John 17:19). He presents himself as an acceptable and unblemished sacrifice. The first consecration focuses on the Incarnation; the second on the Passion. “Jesus himself is the priest sent into the world by the Father; he himself is the sacrifice that is made present in the Eucharist of all times” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 88). Third, Jesus asks, “on the basis of his own sanctification, that the disciples be sanctified in the truth” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 85-86). He prays: “I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” The disciples are given a share in Jesus’ priestly holiness and in his priestly mission. “Whoever, like Jesus, is segregated from the world and set apart for God with a view to a task is, for this very reason, fully available to all. For the disciples, the task will be to continue Jesus’ mission, to be given to God and thereby to be on mission for all” (Benedict XVI, A School of Prayer, 150).

3. The Power of the Gospel: In the First Reading, Paul reflects on his mission. He is giving a farewell address to the presbyters (elders) of the church of Ephesus. Paul has been faithful to his priestly mission and is able to invite the local presbyters to imitate him. As he concludes his address, he tells the presbyters to be on the watch for false teachers, both those outside the Church and those within. “True teachers lead people to fidelity to Jesus’ person and teaching, whereas false teachers reshape the message to enhance their own influence, undermining faith and unity” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, 314). Just as Jesus entrusted the disciples to God’s care in his Last Supper discourse; so does Paul commend the leaders of the church of Ephesus to God and to the word of his grace. Paul recognizes that there is a dynamic power in the Gospel to build up the Christian community as the house of God. He recalls that the word of God’s grace can also give them the inheritance that God has planned for them. In the Old Testament, the inheritance of God’s people was the promised land of Canaan; now, in Christ, our inheritance is eternal life. “This inheritance will be for all who are consecrated, that is, all who are made holy by baptism into Christ” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, 315).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I thank you for teaching us how to pray and giving us the “Our Father” and your high priestly prayer as models of true prayer. I hope that I continue to learn from you and enter more deeply and intimately in communion with the Father.

Living the Word of God: Pray today that the Father watch over you and guide you; pray that you may resist the temptations and lies of the devil and mature spiritually under trial; pray that you may be consecrated in the truth, and, in this way, share in God’s holiness and live for your brothers and sisters.