Gospel Reading: 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. 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.
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.”
THEY MAY SHARE MY JOY COMPLETELY.
Jesus prays that his disciples may share his joy. Jesus does not want to monopolize the joy in him. What is this joy?
It is not a passing feeling but a state of being. It comes out of a meaningful relationship with God. The Greek word for joy is chara, which also means delight, implying more dynamism and activity within the person. Jesus wants his disciples to experience the same joy. He implores the Father to extend this gift to them.
If they have this internal disposition, they will be strong in times of trouble. They will protect one another. No one among them will be lost. There will be no more casualties like Judas Iscariot who will betray him.
With Jesus, the disciples have become a different breed. His word has changed them. Now the world rejects and hates them.
Yet, the disciples can be vulnerable to the Evil One. The Evil One is anything that takes away their joy. So Jesus begs the Father to protect them from the Evil One, as they firm up their band before they are sent to the world to witness to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God.
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If we allow the word of Jesus to change us and witness to his truth, our joy will be complete.
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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.
