John 17:20-26

Acts 22:20; 23:6-11

Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am on a long journey to you and your Son in heaven. Your Son has given me a share in your glory and brings me to perfection so that, one day, I may behold the glory of your face. Guide me along my journey, protect me, and keep me safe.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Jesus Prays for the Church: In the Gospel, Jesus today concludes his priestly prayer to the Father. He has glorified the Father through his Incarnation and will glorify the Father through his Passion and Death. Jesus is the high priest who bestows eternal life on the disciples who believe in him. He intercedes for his disciples and asks the Father to sanctify them so that they can enter into communion with them and can be sent out to all nations to testify to the truth of the Gospel. Now Jesus asks the Father to bring the disciples into unity: communion with God and communion with each other in the Church. The central request of the priestly prayer of Jesus, the unity of believers, is not a worldly product, but something supernatural: “It comes exclusively from the divine unity and reaches us from the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit” (Benedict XVI, A School of Prayer, 151).

2. The Church is One: The divine glory and divine unity of the Father and the Son are rooted in their communion of love. Since the communion of the Father and Son is one of love, so the communion among the disciples and with God must also be one of love. Love is the sign of the New Covenant established in Christ’s blood; and this love becomes the visible sign of unity which leads those outside the Church to faith in Jesus (see DeMeo, Covenantal Kinship in John 13-17, 427-431). Through faith, we enter into communion with Jesus Christ and through him with the Father. “Faith is the real foundation of the disciples' communion, the basis for the Church’s unity” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Vol. II, 97). Through the unity of the disciples, the world will recognize Jesus as the one sent by the Father (Benedict XVI, A School of Prayer, 151). The founding of the Church, that is, the community of disciples who received their unity through faith in Jesus Christ, takes place during Jesus’ prayer for unity. The Church is one because of her source, the Trinity, and because of her founder, Jesus Christ; she is one through charity, through the profession of one faith received from the Apostles, through the common celebration of divine worship; and through Apostolic succession (CCC, 815). Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. The Church can never lose this unity, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time. Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her (CCC, 820). The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit (CCC, 821).

3. Paul’s Share in Jesus’ Passion: The Last Supper discourse takes place before Jesus’ passion. The last chapters of the Acts of the Apostles draw out a parallel between the passion of Jesus Christ and that of Paul. Like Christ, who set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:53), Paul is also determined to go to Jerusalem, where he knows that he will undergo trials and will suffer for the name of Christ. In the Gospels, Jesus predicts his passion three times (Mark 8:31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34; Luke 9:22; 17:25; 18:31-33); Paul's sufferings are also predicted three times (Acts 20:22-23; 21:4; 21:11-14). Paul shares in the sufferings of Jesus just as Jesus foretold he would (Acts 9:15-16). On his arrival in Jerusalem, the Jews plot to kill Paul. They accuse him – before the high priest Ananias, the Sanhedrin, the Roman governor Felix, and King Herod Agrippa II – of acting against the Jewish people and Caesar. Paul’s trial recalls Jesus’ trial: the “Jewish chief priests seek his death, while the governor declares him innocent three times and Herod treats him as innocent once” (Kurz, Acts of the Apostles, 324). Jesus was scourged in the praetorium; Paul was seized and beaten by a Jewish mob in the temple courtyard. After the Romans rescue Paul from the mob, the cohort commander demands to know the truth about the accusation against Paul and orders the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene. During Paul’s trial, the high priest Ananias ordered his attendants to strike Paul on the mouth. This is another parallel: Just as Jesus responded to the high priest, declaring his innocence, so also does Paul. During his trial, Paul seized the opportunity to pit the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the dead, against the Pharisees, who believed in it. The Pharisees sided with Paul and refused to condemn him. In the fight that ensued, Paul was rescued once again by the Romans. He remained under arrest, and, during the night, Jesus appeared to Paul to encourage him and send him out on his last mission. Paul bore witness to Jesus in Jerusalem, but now he must also bear witness in Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you grant your friends a share in your passion. You do this because you know it is the path that leads to eternal life. You eagerly desired the hour of your passion when you would glorify the Father and will sustain me as I share in your passion and glorify God. 

Living the Word of God: Do I regularly unite my sufferings to those of Christ? What have I suffered this past year for the sake of Jesus’ name? Can I offer that in union with Christ to the Father?