Gospel: John 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 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
The Mass intention is for Private Intention.
Reflection:
During His Passion, Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Some commentators wrote that Pilate knew the truth of Jesus’ innocence. However, the Jews at the time knew of another “truth” that Jesus was guilty. Pilate played safe and washed his hands of Jesus’ death. Nowadays, society has behaved like Pilate. Take for example the concept of God and His plan of salvation. This has been accepted by some and rejected by others. Why? Because some people treat God’s truth as relative and subjective: what is true for you may not be true for me.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks the Father to consecrate His followers to the truth. This is not the relative truth that the world seeks, but the absolute truth that Jesus bore witness to and died for. Men, women, children through the ages who have decided to follow Jesus have made innumerable sacrifices and even lost their lives for the truth. We too have been consecrated to the truth. Assured of the Father’s protection from the Evil One, let us stand beside Jesus who is the Truth.
- How do you accept God’s word as truth?
- How do you live as someone not belonging to the world?
- “[T]he light of the lighthouse is in no way comparable to the Light who is Christ, radiating through His Church, making possible every day your salvation and mine.” (Cardinal John O’Connor). How can the Church bring Christ closer to you?
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Word today. Day by day, may we faithfully bear witness to You – the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen.
(Pietro)
