Sunday Meditation: The Prayer for Unity and Truth

For those of us who celebrated Thursday as the Solemnity of the Accession, we get an additional set of readings in the lectionary.  Actually we get the appropriate set of readings.  It’s those who have their Ascension oddly displaced that lose out on a set of readings.  And how appropriate that today Christ prays for us!  Think about this.  Thursday Christ ascended.  The disciples locked themselves in the upper room in fear and prayed.  They prayed for nine days, the very first novena, until Pentecost Sunday when the Holy Spirit came down upon them.  And so, today, while we are locked in prayer, Jesus prays along with us.

 

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 one.

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.”

~Jn 17:11-19

What Jesus prayed for was unity and Truth.  Jeff Cavins explains the passage.

 

I also thought highly of Fr. Ebuka Immanuel Polycarp’s reflection. 

 

Have you started your Pentecost Novena?  You know, I forgot to start on Thursday, but I will start now.  I think one can make up the days of a Novena if you start late or miss.  I do it all the time.

 

Sunday Meditation: “I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

 

Today happens to also be Mother’s Day, at least in the United States, if not elsewhere.  There is a classic Italian song simply called, Mama, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamma_(song) which is so appropriate for today.  Here is Luciano Pavarotti’s rendition.

 

Here is a rough English translation which doesn’t do the song any justice.

 

Mamma  (English translation)

 

Mamma 

Mamma I am very happy

because I am returning to you

my song is telling you

that it is the most beautiful day for me

Mamma I am very happy

why should we live apart?

 

Mamma, only for you

my song flies

Mamma, you will stay with me

you'll not be alone anymore

how much I love you

these words of love

that my heart is whispering to you

maybe are not longer used

 

Mamma, but my most beautiful song is you

you are my life

and for the rest of my life I'll never leave you again

 

I can feel your tired hand

looking for my golden curls

I can hear, and your voice is a whisper

the lullaby of back then

today, your white head

I want to hold tight to my heart.

To all the Mothers who may read this, Happy Mother’s Day!

Sunday Meditation: Jesus’ Great Prayer

After Jesus has ascended and the apostles retreat to pray, the lectionary recalls what certainly the apostles recalled closed up in the upper room Jesus great prayer before the Passion.

 

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 your son 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.”          

Jn 17:1-11

No matter how I searched, I could not find a good homily or exegesis on YouTube for this week’s Gospel.  So I give you this dramatization of Jesus with his great prayer of John 17. 

 

Here is a verse to meditate on: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”

When Jesus tells you what eternal life is, you should listen.

 

Gospel of John, Part 4

Part 1 on this series on John’s Gospel is here.  

Part 2 is here. 

Part 3 is here.  

With the closing of chapter 12, we have come to the end of Jesus’ ministry and we come to what amounts for the last supper in John’s Gospel.  John doesn’t narrate the institution of the Eucharist as the other Gospel’s do at the last supper, but he does narrate two striking scenes.  Let’s look at the second scene first.  I find interesting that we see Jesus handing bread out in John’s last supper, only the bread is not His body and He hands it only to Judas Iscariot.  When Jesus announces that one of the disciples will betray Him, and they ask Him who it is, Jesus uses bread signify the guilty one.

“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and [took it and] handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.  After he took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”  (John 13:26-27)

What to make of it?  Perhaps if you approach the Eucharist with an unworthy heart, it actually becomes the inverse of the body of Christ.

Any thoughts on why John doesn’t narrate the institution of the Eucharist?  Obviously he knew about it.  The fact that there’s a last supper, that he goes to great length in chapter 6 on eating the  body of Christ, and this “inverse” morsel of bread He gives to Judas shows John’s knowledge of it.  My hunch is John doesn’t narrate it because it’s been done already.  He seems to go to great length not to repeat the other Gospels, and I think he doesn’t feel the need to repeat the institution narrative.

The other striking scene is the foot washing scene. 

So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”  (John 13:3-7)

Later Jesus explains the significance.

So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?  You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.  If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.  Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.  (John 13:12-18)

He calls Himself “teacher” and “lord” but that doesn’t quite do it justice.  He is King of the universe, God Himself who will come to judge the living and the dead, and He lowers Himself to do the lowest menial task, the washing of people’s feet.  And He says, this is the model we are to follow.  To follow Jesus then is to be servant to each other, to find dignity in what appears to be undignified.

This is another example of Jesus inverting the norm.  The poor become exalted, a slave becomes king, love becomes power, the dead come to life.

Every parish recreates the foot washing scene every Holy Thursday.  Have any of you had the honor of being selected to be one whose feet get washed?  I was selected a few years ago.  It was a great moment. 

###

All the narrative scenes and the chapters of the signs in John’s Gospel are memorable, from chapters one through thirteen, and then the passion narrative of chapters eighteen and nineteen are extremely engaging as are the resurrection scenes of twenty and twenty-one.  But the chapters in between the signs and passion narrative, fourteen through seventeen, become a blur.  They are filled with discourse and Jesus’ prayer, and so I think become indistinguishable.  At least for me.  As a unit, it is referred to as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse.  I put together this little table to capture the gist and highlights of those four chapters in the hopes of them being more distinct in the mind.

Chapter 14:

Themes:

(1) Jesus as the way

(2) The Holy Spirit as the Advocate and Spirit of Truth

Key Sayings:

(1) No one comes to the Father except through me

(2) Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do

(3) If you love me, you will keep my commandments

(4) I am the way and the truth and the life.

Chapter 15:

Themes:

(1) Discourse on the vine and the fruit

(2) Discourse on being hated on account of Jesus

Key Sayings:

(1) I am the vine, you are the branches. 

(2) Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Chapter 16:

Themes:

(1) Discourse on the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth

(2) Discourse on Jesus Going and Returning

Key Sayings:

(1) I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

(2) I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.

Chapter 17:

Themes:

(1) Prayer that His disciples may know the Father

(2) Prayer that His followers may be one

Key Sayings:

(1) Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.

(2) I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you

I have found that chapter 17 to come up in debates.  Jesus prays that His Church be one.  All those who have splintered off from the original Church are really in violation of Jesus’ wish. 

I hope this summary helps as the readings from these chapters come up at Mass.

###

Two scenes have always caught my interest in John’s passion account.  First is the scene when the soldiers come for Jesus.

So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.  Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”  They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”  He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them.  When he said to them, “I AM,” they turned away and fell to the ground.  So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”  Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”  (John 18:3-8)

I always get a kick out of the way the soldiers fall to the ground when Jesus says the divine name, “I AM.”  It’s a little slapstick moment.  It shows that Jesus has the power to walk away from this if He so wished.  He is in control.  He commands the situation: “Who are you looking for?”  “That’s me.”  “Let these men go.” 

This recalls a moment earlier in John’s Gospel in chapter ten.  After the Good Shepherd discourse, Jesus says, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (John 10:18).  He has the power.  His life is not taken from Him.  He freely allows them to take it.  So when they come to arrest Him, the soldiers falling down to the force of His words, it is a manifestation of His power.

The other scene that captures my imagination is the interrogation scene before Pilate. 

So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?”  Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”  So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  (John 18:33-38)

Here’s a bit of a confession.  Pontius Pilate is the person in the New Testament with who I most identified.  Pilate here is the model of efficiency.  Get to the facts.  Understand the situation, and come to a decision.  “What have you done?”  “Then you are a King?”  What is truth?”  He is a Roman officer ready to administrate.  Pilate is me in charge of an engineering project.  Figure it out, get the facts, find the truth, and make it work. 

But Pilate is baffled.  This criminal before him doesn’t behave like a criminal.  There is something mystical here.  He is trying to understand Jesus.  He can’t penetrate the situation.  He’s trying to calculate.  I’ve had that so many times in trying to figure what physics are doing in a design.  Why isn’t it working?  The design is talking back to me.  “There is a truth.”  And I say, “What is truth?  Truth is what works.”  That is the life of an efficient engineer.  But at least there isn’t a moral problem with what I’m doing.  It’s only an inanimate design, mere metal, electrical, or chemical parts.  Pilate has before him a human being.  He wants to do what’s moral.  But when the situation gets close to a riot, then the calculation becomes what’s moral is to keep stability.  And so Jesus has to die.  Efficiency finds an answer.

They changed the words a bit, but Rod Steiger plays a great Pontius Pilate in Jesus of Nazareth.  Here’s that scene.

Always good to see that movie. 

Kerstin Replied:

I find it interesting that you identify with Pilate, Manny. I suppose as a German I fall into this category too ;-) I like efficiency. Right now I am thinking of re-arranging some stuff in my kitchen because the way I organized it doesn't quite fit the work flow...

Looking at your argument of efficiency, we do get carried away and push God out of the way. Pilate rightly calculates that a riot is never good, but he misses that by doing so he pushes God out of the way. How many times - despite the niggling feeling to the contrary - do we push God out of the way? Probably more often than we care to admit.

My Reply:

Haha, Germans have made some very good engineers over the last few centuries.

If I were in Pilate's shoes with Pilate's knowledge, I doubt I would have followed a different course of action. Pilate tries to get Jesus off, but it just got out of control. If I were to do something different, I guess I could have let Jesus go and lock down Jerusalem. But in all likelihood, the Romans would not have had enough soldiers to restrain the mob.