A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “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.”
Jesus prays for his disciples so that they may be one just as he is one with the Father. To be one with the Father is to be consecrated in his truth. Jesus’ prayer is that the disciples be sent out into the world just as he was sent out, consecrated in the truth. In the first reading, Paul echoes Jesus’ prayer for protection. He says as he speaks to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them.” He urges them to be vigilant and departs from them saying, “And now I commend you to God.”
Lord, help me see and live in the truth today so that I can be consecrated in you, truth itself. Help me look toward eternal life, and the means to it: to know you, the only true God. I am easily led away from you throughout the day, and the result is that I accept confused and distorted views in place of your clarity and truth. The psalmist in today’s responsorial says, “Confess the power of God!” Give me the grace today to remain in your truth.
From the Gospel acclamation: “Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.