27 May 2020
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Today’s Gospel from John begins Jesus’ high priestly prayer at the last supper. Pope Benedict XVI noted the connections between Jesus’ prayer and the high priest’s prayer during the Jewish feast of the Day of Atonement. During this feast, the people of Israel were brought back into union with God through the prayer and sacrifice of the high priest. The structure of the high priest’s prayer was to first pray for himself, then for his ‘house’ or the other Levites, and finally for the people of Israel. Jesus’ prayer follows this structure exactly, and through this prayer, Jesus invoked the role of the high priest, and tied his passion into the feast of atonement. Every time Jesus prays, there are a myriad of ways to draw fruit for our own spiritual lives. We will focus on two from today’s prayer.
First, Jesus prays so that his followers might “share my joy completely.” This harkens back to the reflection yesterday, and something that cuts to the heart of the Christian life, joy. Christian joy brings with it a paradox, for Jesus prays that his followers have joy in the midst of being hated by the world. The first reading from Acts reveals Paul’s challenging missionary life and the hatred he underwent, but Paul is also a tribute to the joy that can ground this work despite the hardship. Jesus prays for his followers to witness to him in joy, and that ought to be our prayer today as well. As Pope Francis reminds us: “an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral… Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, be enabled to receive the good news…from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ” (10).
The second lesson is that Jesus’ prayer asks for the consecration of his followers: “Consecrate them in the truth…I consecrate myself for them, so that they also be consecrated in truth.” To consecrate something is to dedicate it completely to God, setting it apart and making it holy. This consecration is not done to just make things holy alone, but consecration is tied into mission. Jesus, in this prayer, consecrates, so as to mission. Christians are consecrated, anointed, set apart, and claimed by God. In so doing, Christians are offered God’s life and holiness. This consecration and call to holiness is not done to keep Christians away from the world, but it is done so that we can be sent out by God into the world to be missionaries. Consecration leads to holiness; holiness leads to mission; and our mission ought to be marked by joy.
Jesus’ prayer is offered not just in the past, but for us all today. He is praying for us, for our joy, for our consecration, and for our mission. How might we respond in prayer today?