Word to the Wise
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 - 7th Week of Easter - Wed
[Acts 20:28-38 and John 17:11b-19]"Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one....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 may be consecrated in truth." [John]
The gospel scriptures this week are taken from the last part of the Last Supper discourse which takes up all of chapter 17. It is a long and spiraling prayer that is almost "stream of consciousness" in character. Scripture scholars refer to it as Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer] because it is a long intercession on behalf of the disciples. Three relationships are intertwined: Jesus/Father, Jesus/disciples, disciples/world.
Fundamental to the Gospel According to John is belief in Jesus. This is how we are able to share in his relationship with the Father. The relationship is one of love and truth. The disciples are "sent" to share that relationship through their encounters with the "world" just as they received a share in it through coming to faith in Jesus as the one whom God has sent. Keeping this in mind can, I think, help us to wind our way through the prayer that the evangelist has handed down to us from the Last Supper. AMEN