From the responsorial psalm: “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 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.”
Jesus prays to the Father as his disciples are nearby, overhearing his prayer. Known as the “high priestly prayer,” Jesus prepares to leave this world, a place as he says, that the disciples do not belong to any more than he belongs to. Yet, the prayer is for the disciples who will be sent out into the world, not taken from it. God, whose word and being is truth, hears the prayer of his Son, who asks that the disciples be consecrated in truth as Jesus consecrates himself for them “so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Compare this to what Jesus would face as John describes in the next chapter, when he meets Pilate, who asks Jesus “What is truth?” in response to these words of Jesus: “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
God, help me hear your Son’s voice, testifying to the truth, even as I face the distortions of truth that the world offers daily. Give me the grace, Lord, to remain in you and in the truth and love whose source is your being. Protect me and guard me as Jesus protected the disciples so that none were lost. “This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,” John says, “that he has given us of his Spirit.” You loved us first, Father, and sent your Son so that we might love one another and remain in you. Lord, help me learn to remain in you and bring your love to perfection as you send me out into the world. Consecrate me in your truth so that I come to share completely in the joy of your Son.
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.