On this last Sunday of Eastertide before Pentecost, we reach the climax of the Last Discourse of Jesus, given in St. John’s Gospel. This is the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus: Chapter 17. This year we read the central section of this prayer, which is concerned above all with the 11 disciples sitting there with Jesus at the Last Supper.
Very soon he will leave them. As he was sent by his Father into the world, so now he is sending his disciples into the world (17:18). During the time between the Ascension and the Second Coming, his disciples, his Church, will be remain in the world, in order to continue his mission. This mission will be supported by divine guarantees: by the protection of the Father; by the constant intercession of Jesus himself; and by the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit.
Keep those you have given me true to your name (17:11), Jesus prays. That is: may they always know, and proclaim, that God is eternally Father of his eternal Son, and that in the Holy Spirit, Father and Son share the one divine life. May the disciples understand how the mission of the Son, made man for our sake, has been to draw all believers into this divine and eternal life. And proclaiming this, may they always live worthily of it.
May they be one like us. Four times in this prayer Jesus speaks of this unity of his disciples. May they be one: united, that is, with God, through and with and in Jesus Christ, and by the unifying power of the Holy Spirit. And in that unity with God, may they also be united with one another. This prayer of Jesus for unity is equivalently a prayer for the Holy Spirit, who is himself the principle and source of love and unity in the Church; or he is the ever-active principle of the unitive love of the Church. In St. John’s Gospel the High Priest Caiaphas prophesies that Christ must die in order to gather into one the scattered children of God (11:52). A symbol of that unity is the robe of Christ, woven in one piece, and not torn by the soldiers at the Cross (19:23). Or, according to St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians: there is one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God who Father of us all (Eph 4:4).
Our Creed proclaims our belief in 4 marks of the Church: that she is One, and Holy, and Catholic, and Apostolic. We believe then that Christ’s parting prayer is infallibly accomplished. The Catholic Church possesses that unity for which he prayed, and cannot ever lose it. Of course this unity is always under pressure, or attack; never fully accomplished this side of heaven; always subject to new wounds, as new heresies and new schisms come to contradict the message of the Gospel. But wherever there is authentic Catholic faith, and genuine charity, and a valid Eucharist, celebrated under a Bishop who is truly a successor of the Apostles, united with the validly constituted Bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter: there the unity of the Church is realised. This unity, in the celebrated words of St. Cyprian, is that of a people “made one with the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
This is all this beautiful and inspiring doctrine. But the prayer of Jesus touches also, as it has to, on the dark mystery of evil. Until the end of time, the mission of the Church in this world will be opposed. There will always be those who do not believe in Jesus, and who hate those who belong to him. They make up what Jesus here calls “the world”. Ultimately their master and guiding force is the devil, the evil one himself. One among the chosen 12 has already decided to reject the light, and to belong instead to the darkness. Now, even as Jesus speaks, Judas is gathering together his armed band, ready to set off for Gethsemani. Jesus here refers to Judas by a terrible title, “Son of Perdition”. That is, Judas is one whose destiny it is to be lost forever. But for the 11 – please God for all of us – a very different destiny awaits. Jesus here defines that in two words: joy and consecration. Even here in this world we are to share in the joy of Jesus, and in his consecration.
The joy of Jesus we could say is his divinity. It’s his perfect and eternal union with his Father in love. The consecration of Jesus is his anointing by the Holy Spirit for carrying out his work. Supremely though, the consecration of Jesus is his High Priestly act, whereby he offers to God the sacrifice of himself on the Cross. This sacrifice has power not only to wash away our sins, and to give us life, but also specifically to make us holy, to set us apart for God. Through the blood of Jesus, in which we are baptised, in principle we are radically separated from the world. Why? In order that we may give worship to the Father in Spirit and in Truth. But also, through the blood of Jesus, we are commissioned to continue his work in the world. Even here, surrounded by whatever contrary forces, we are to bear witness to Jesus, to love one another, and to intercede for sinners. And then at last, when the right time comes - once our work is done - with Jesus we will go to God. There we will share his joy to the full. There finally we will be perfectly free from all evil, and wholly given up to adoration of the Father. There also we will be perfectly one with God and with one another; one with Jesus, and with all who are to be saved; rejoicing together eternally, in a consummated love that is God’s gift, and God’s self.