John 17:20-26
Jesus Prays for All Believers
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
The Gospel of the Lord …….
The Mass intention is for John Hodgkinson RIP
Commentary
In the Gospel Our Lord Jesus Christ prays that we as Christians might be in communion or be united with him and the Father and The Holy Spirit. Indeed, there is no prayer more efficacious than the prayer of Jesus, nor unifying force more powerful than praying together with our brothers and sisters. That we might become an authentic part in that community of perfect love , The Holy Trinity.
Jesus declares the name and character of the Father by his doctrine and his Spirit, so that the love of God towards him might abide with all those who believe in him as well. Thus being joined to him and living by the Holy Spirit, we should be consumed with the conviction of our faith and , with joy and hope, gain and enjoy eternal love and happiness with our Triune God.
We pray through the intercession of our saint today, St Josaphat, who worked strenuously and offered his own life for the unity of the church, that we dedicate ourselves anew to the task of establishing among Gods people in different walks of life a firm and abiding love and witness to that unity by being receptive and responsive to the challenges of our present world.
