Gospel: Jn 17:1-11a
JESUS raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
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In what is now known as his Priestly Prayer, Jesus prays for himself, for the disciples, and for future believers. He does not ask anything for himself. He prays not for the glory of his own name but for the glory of the Father. As Jesus approaches his “hour of glory,” which is his exaltation in death, he asks that the Father’s glory may be revealed on the Cross as he suffers its terrible torments.
Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples, that they may be “sanctified” or set aside for Jesus’ mission of glorifying the Father. He prays for future generations of believers that they may join him in the house of the Father.
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2017” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
