Gospel: 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. 19And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
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Jesus appeals to the “name” of his heavenly Father and pleads that the same power and protection he has experienced through the Father’s name will be unleashed on his disciples and will cover them with divine protection. Jesus prays that they may be consecrated in the truth.
Jesus has revealed himself as “the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). He asks the Father that his Apostles may set out on mission by remaining connected to his teachings and to his very person. Jesus desires that his followers adopt his way of thinking, his sense of judgment, and his simple lifestyle characterized by utter dependence on God.
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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.
