The last words of today’s second reading are “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him [or her]” (see 1 John 4:16). It seems to me that these words are a wonderful introduction to Jesus’ prayer to the Father as presented in today’s Gospel. In it he pleads: “Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one . . . so that they may share my joy completely . . . I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one . . . consecrate them in the truth” (see John 17:11b-19). In the previous chapter of the same Gospel, Jesus had already told his disciples to have “courage.” He said to them: “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (see John 16: 33b).
Isn’t it precisely because we “remain” in God’s love that Jesus can assure his disciples that he has “conquered the world” and that they should have no fear? In today’s Gospel, Jesus pleads with the same loving Father to “protect from the evil one” those whom he sends into the world. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus was very aware of the regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill human weaknesses that his disciples had (and certainly we have too!).
Jesus knows and guarantees to us that love will conquer all fear! He prays fervently to the Father for the continued faith and strength of all of his disciples, including those of us who remain in the world today! And of course, because we know Jesus loves us, we desire with all of our hearts to love him too! We also have confidence that Jesus will always be with us, and that he will provide whatever strength we need to overcome any negative powers or forces we might face in our lives. We need not fear those things that otherwise promise to threaten our peace and want to destroy our sense of being blessed. With this in mind, we can therefore pray the same prayer of Jesus!
We can lovingly encourage all of our sisters and brothers to have confidence that we will always have the protection of the Father. This is especially true when we are faced with the temptations and struggles of “the world.” And even though we understand that it won’t always be easy, we can remain sure of God’s loving presence in our lives. It’s likely that we will sometimes fail to love others as we should, and we may give in to other temptations as well (these weaknesses are also known as “sin”), but we can be sure that even so, God is always with us! Jesus knew well the realities of human life, and the fact that none of us are perfect, and this is why he pleaded so fervently to the Father on our behalf.
Let us take confidence in this prayer of Jesus, and let us be sure that each one of us is “consecrated in truth.” This desire and prayer of Jesus really is about that which enables us to love God and others at our best. And so let us strive to live our consecration with pure love, with confidence and with joy! May we always trust the power of our God, he who is love!
Christ is Risen, Truly, He is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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