Hi everyone, welcome back to daily gospel exegesis and if
you've been listening for a while you know how it works.
We really want to give you the tools to understand the literal
sense of the biblical text. What was the author trying to
say when he use these particular words in this particular time
period? So really Getting into the study
of the Bible text itself today, we're continuing in the great
High Priestly prayer of Jesus. We're looking at John chapter,
17 verses 20 to 26. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven
and said, holy father, I pray not only for these but also for
those who through their words will believe in me, may they all
be one father? May they be one in us as As you
are in me and I am in you so that the world may believe it
was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you
gave to me. That they may be one.
As we are one with me in them and you in me.
May they be so completely one that the world will realize that
it was you who sent me? And that I have loved them as
much as you have loved me. Father, I want those.
You have given me to be with me where I am so that they may
always see the glory. You have given me because you
have loved me before the foundation of the world.
Father, righteous one. The world has not known you but
I have known you. And these have known that you
have sent me. I have made your name known to
them and will continue to make it known so that the love with
which you loved me, may be in them and so that I may be in
them. So let's start as we always do,
by considering the context, what is just happened?
So the Last Supper has finished, and they're walking towards the
Garden of Gethsemane and it appears maybe they've stopped to
pray somewhere. This prayer that Jesus is
praying today. It started at the start of
chapter 17. It's often called the high
Priestly prayer of Jesus. And when we looked at it
yesterday, there's at the the first part of the prayer has a
particular focus on. Jesus asking the father to watch
over the apostles when they're faced difficult trials in the
world. And we looked at that yesterday
and as you would have heard, when I read that passage out.
There's some really deep complex.
Trinitarian theology in here. There's A deep mystical Unity
that Jesus is talking about here.
And so in this podcast, we're not going to be able to dry up
all of the riches that Jesus was, you know, probably
intending. Even we're just going to do our
best to see. What does it mean on the most
literal level of the text? But this is one of those Bible
passages where perhaps the best way to learn from it is to sit
with a meditate on it. Let's start our exploration here
at the start of verse 20. Now this Phrase here is not
actually in the original. It says Jesus raised his eyes to
heaven and said, holy father. Now, that was part of earlier,
in John chapter 17, but the lectionary has also added it to
the start of today's reading, just to make it a bit clearer
and give it a bit of context before Jesus launches into the
prayer. Jesus says, I pray not only for
these so Jesus up until now was praying for the apostles.
But now he says he's probably not only for these but also for
those who through their words will believe in me.
So Jesus is now going to pray for all those who will believe
through the preaching of the Apostles in the apostolic age
and that probably means by extension.
He's thinking of all future Christian Believers so probably
we if we're Christians Genes are included in Jesus prayer here.
Verse 21. Now, Jesus starts use this
language of Oneness. May they all be one.
So Jesus, here is praying that all Christians past present and
future will be United in will and Mission.
That's the main meaning of will be one United in will and
Mission, some Scholars have pointed out that because Jesus
wants all future Christians to be one.
May they all be one if he really does mean all future Christians.
Jesus might be talking about a deep Oneness, which actually
transcends time and space. In fact, he probably is, he's
probably talking about a Oneness that derives, From the Trinity
itself, who is outside of time. You've probably heard this verse
before, may they all be one and possibly in the context of
discussions about relationships between Christian denominations,
and maybe The ecumenical movement, you tend to hear it
talked about in those discussions, where the goal of
the ecumenical movement is so that all Christians might all be
one. And that's okay but we need to
keep in mind the next part of the verse, the next phrase in
this verse because Jesus is going to tell us what it's going
to take in order. To achieve that Oneness father,
may they be one in us. So notice that Jesus prayer is
not that Christians would be one in and of themselves, but rather
be United to God under the father and the son, that's the
Oneness that Jesus wants. He goes on as you are in me and
I am in you. So the father and the son, this
Jesus is talking to the father here.
He's talking about the Deep intimacy and unity that they
already have as members of the trinity.
Jesus is saying that Christians are called to share a similar
Oneness amongst themselves and with the Trinity.
So, to go over that again, there's this deep Oneness that
already exists between the father and the son.
And Jesus wants Christians to be part of that same Oneness.
We should never forget the kind of unity, Jesus is looking for
here. Jesus is praying for a deep
mystical Union between Christians and God himself.
A deep mystical Union between Christians and God.
Now that would include being in line with God's will.
We can't have a deep Unity with God if we're not in line with
his will. So this is the difficult aspect
of the ecumenical movement or at least using this verse to
support The ecumenical movement. The teaching of this verse is
that Christians cannot be one unless we in line with God's
will. That's difficult in the academic
medical movement, because different Christians have
different opinions, and different understandings of God.
And so, it makes it quite difficult to achieve that
particular thing. So with that said, Jesus now
explains what he wants. The final goal of Christian
union, Unity to be so that the world may believe it was you who
sent me Jesus desire. Is that Christians would be
clearly United to the father's will and then the world will
take notice of Christians. And as a result, they will
realize that Jesus was indeed sent from God.
That's the end goal of Christian Unity for the world to take
notice. And to realize that Jesus has in
fact, been sent by God. The goal of Christian Unity.
Then According To Jesus is not so much for the church per se as
it is, but so, that more people would be turned to God and his
kingdom and his church. That's the goal of Christian
Unity to bring others into that Unity.
So, one of the early Christian writers, st.
Cyril of Alexandria says this about this particular verse
Christ Wishes. The disciples to be kept in a
state of Unity by maintaining a like-mindedness and an identity
of will being mingled together as it were in Soul and Spirit
and in the Law of Peace and Love for one another, he wishes them
to be bound together. Tightly with an unbreakable Bond
of love that they may Advanced to such a degree of unity that
they're freely chosen Association.
Might even become an image of the natural Unity that is
conceived to exist between the father and the son.
So such deep complex, relational language that's used.
Here, even from the church Fathers as they reflected on
this passage. One thing that's interesting to
consider that Scholars have pointed out is that if Jesus
wants the world, to notice the church and in terms of noticing
the church's Unity, that means the church has to in some sense.
Be visible and organized. So it tells us at least to an
extent. What Jesus wants the church to
look like verse 22. I have given them the glory.
You gave to me. Jesus is talking about the
apostles. It appears this appears to be a
reference to the Divine communion which exists between
the father and the son. And so since the apostles have
now entered, the kingdom of God, they have their in fellowship
with God, they have achieved eternal life.
Jesus is saying that they have experienced this Divine
communion of the Trinity also, which is quite phenomenal.
The apostles, According To Jesus are experiencing at this moment
that he's speaking the Divine Union with God, Then he adds
this to the end that they may be one even as we are one.
So Jesus desires that the apostles and all Christians
would be United, just like the Trinity is so it's incredible.
Standard to look, too. Isn't it?
The unity of the Trinity is what Jesus wants the unity of
Christians to look like. As far as possible.
Verse 23, the he starts to use even more deep language with me
in them and you in me. So it's the language of deep
abiding. Leti the Trinity dwells within
Christians both individually and collectively as long as they
stay joined to God, may they be completely one or more.
Literally. There it says perfectly one.
Notice that Jesus says he doesn't want Christians to be
sort of one or somewhat one, he wants them to be 100% perfectly
United, just as the father and the son are now, naturally, that
would be impossible to have fallen humans.
Achieve 100% Unity T by themselves is not possible, but
remember, it's the trinities union, which is the source of
this Unity. So it is possible through God
and then Jesus against it is that the world will realize that
it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you
love me. Now, this is not a very good
translation. It's understandable because
there's such a difficult language.
In those different pronouns being used here.
I think our lectionary doesn't get this line, right?
So our lectionary has it as and that I have loved them as much
as you have loved me. What the text actually just says
here is an test, love them as you have loved me.
And so that would suggest the text is talking about the
father. So the father loves Christians.
As much as the father loves Jesus, that that would be a
better translation. So that is a profound Truth.
The Father loves Christians just as much as he loves the Sun and
Jesus wants the world to realize that the father has a special
love for Christians. We should never forget that.
The father loves the world and that's certainly a teaching of
the Gospel of John and he also loves Christians in particular.
And this verse says he loves them as much as he loves his son
and that is an incredible privilege that we get to be a
part of Verse 24. Father.
I want those. You have given me to be with me,
where I am Jesus desires, that his followers can be with him in
heaven. That's what he means by those.
You have given me as we've seen a few times in this podcast.
That's a reference to Christian followers.
This is a desire that his followers would be with him in
heaven. I want those, you have given me
to be with me where I am. You could also interpret this to
mean. He wants followers to be to have
the Divine Unity. To the same extent that Jesus
has with the father, something like that, but notice how strong
Jesus desire is to be with his people.
I want those, you have given me to be with me, were to be with
me, where I am, Jesus wants us to be with him, then he adds
this so that they may always see the glory, you have given me.
So if Jesus here is talking about, he wanting Christians to
be in heaven with him and that would certainly seem to be
what's going on here. Jesus is Desiring.
The Christians can see him in his true form, as the Son of
God. And in fact, that is a Christian
teaching in heaven, Christians will be able to behold Jesus in
His True trinitarian Glory. We will be able to see Jesus
with the glory, that the father has given him in Catholic
theology. We call this State the beatific
Vision that is what Christians get access to in heaven.
John the author of this passage would later reflect on this
teaching by saying beloved we are God's children.
Now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him
for. We shall see him as he is.
That's in 1, John 3:2. And then he adds this last
phrase because you have loved me before the foundation of the
world. This is an incredible deep
trinitarian truth that you could spend hours thinking about this,
you have loved me before the foundation of the world.
The father has begotten. The son and has loved him and
bestowed glory on him, since eternity, before the world, even
existed before time existed, the father begat, the son and has
loved him and he continues Has to do this as well.
Jesus continues verse 25, father, righteous one.
That's what he calls him in this passage, the world has not known
you, so, the world, which is those who don't believe in in
Jesus. They do not understand the
father, or his will, because they've rejected Jesus.
But Jesus says, but I have known you.
So Jesus himself knows the father's will and these you have
known that you have sent me. So Jesus.
Says, Christian, Believers, present and future are those who
know Jesus is sent by God. That's who Jesus is thinking.
Of those who know Jesus is sent by God.
Verse 26, I have made your name known to them.
So Jesus says I have revealed the father's will to my
followers and will continue to make it known.
This is interesting because Jesus knows that he's leaving
the world. But he still he promises here to
continue to make the father known to his book to his
followers. So he must be teaching that he's
going to do that from Heaven. He will continue to teach
Christians through the Holy Spirit from heaven.
And we see that particular Lee in chapter 16 verse 13, when
Jesus talks about the role of the Holy Spirit, And that's
another amazing thing to draw out of this passage Jesus
ministry and his service. To Christians does not end at
his death. He is teaching and guiding
Christians for all eternity, particularly through the
guidance of the church. So that the love with, which he
loved me. May be in them and so that I may
be in them. So Jesus desires, that Christian
Believers, would be infused with the love of the father and his
own presence. He wants his own followers to I
love that the father that he's experienced about the father so
there's so much going on there and that's well worth meditating
on if we were to summarize, this particular part of the Great
High Priestly prayer. We could say something like this
through the Holy Spirit, the Divine love with which the
father has loved the Sun from all eternity.
Becomes a living reality in Jesus disciples as they come to
know the father whom Jesus has revealed more deeply through the
Holy Spirit. Eret.
The disciples love and participation in the Divine
communion will increase until at last.
They reached the goal of remaining forever in the
father's house. So that is the end of the great
High Priestly prayer. And if you've been following
this podcast for a while, over the last three or four weeks,
This ends the long section of the complex monologues that
Jesus gives on Holy Thursday. For the next few days in the
podcast will be looking at something different.
We have finished the complex sayings of Jesus on Holy
Thursday and you're probably quite excited about that because
although there's a lot of richness in them and we've
certainly done our best in the podcast.
There's also a lot of depth in them and it can be quite
difficult to stay with them for a long time.
So, well done on getting to this point.
So that's the end of chapter 17. So if you read on from the
Gospel of John, after this you get to chapter 18 and that
describes the arrest of Jesus in the garden and his various
trials on, Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
Now that whole chapter chapter 18 is read on Every Good Friday
if you go to Mass on Good Friday but it's never read in small
chunks so you don't get a chance to really meditate on specific.
Small parts of chapter 18 and 19.
So so we want to break down the text of chapter 18 and 19 as
bonus episodes of the podcast and you can get access to those
bonus episodes by becoming a patreon supporter.
So, if you've enjoyed the way that we've been analyzing these
small parts of texts from the Gospel of John and you'd like to
see the same thing happen to chapter 18 and 19, you won't get
a chance as part of the regular podcast because you never hear
small chunks of chapter 18 and 19 in the litter.
Vehicle year. But if you are willing to become
a regular monthly donor, to help support the work of this
podcast, then you can get access to these bonus episodes where we
do in exegesis of parts, of chapter, 18 and chapter 19.
We break it down into smaller parts, so we can keep going
through it and really mind the riches of this text.
So, please prayerfully consider becoming a patreon supporter of
the ministry and you can see more information about that in
the show notes. So let's finish today and let's
finish the sayings of Jesus on Holy Thursday by looking at some
catechism passages, as we always do, there's quite a few places
in the catechism, which make reference.
So this, we just want to read out a few of the highlights
paragraph, 260. This is about the Trinity and
the works that the Trinity does the ultimate end of the whole
Divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect
Unity of the Blessed Trinity. T, but even now, we are called
to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity.
If a man loves me says the Lord, he will keep my word and my
father will love him and we will come to him and make our home
with him. That is an incredible Catholic
teaching right there, the whole point of the Divine economy, the
whole point of salvation for humans is so that we as
creatures could become United to the Blessed Trinity paragraph
877. This is about the ecclesial
Ministry. Likewise it belongs to the
sacramental, nature of ecclesial Ministry that it have a
collegial character. In fact, from the beginning of
his ministry, the Lord Jesus instituted the 12 as the seeds
of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred.
Iraqi chosen together. They were also sent out together
and they're fraternal Unity would be at the service of the
Fraternal. Communion of the faithful, they
would reflect and witness to the communion of the Divine persons
for this reason, every Bishop exercises his ministry.
From within the Episcopal College in communion with the
bishop of Rome, the successor of st.
Peter and the head of the college.
So also priests exercise their Ministry from within the
Presbyterian of the diocese. Under the direction of the
bishop. so that particular passage talks about how Jesus
wanted the apostles to work, particularly as people, who are
going to spread the kingdom of God, and how that extends to
priests and Bishops today, Paragraph 8, 2 0.
This is about Unity of course a key theme of this passage today
has been about Unity Christ. Bestowed.
Unity on his church from the beginning.
This Unity, we believe subsists in the Catholic church as
something she can never lose and we hope that it will continue to
increase Until the End of Time Christ.
Always gives you this church, the gift of unity, but the
church must always pray and work to maintain reinforce and
perfect. The unity that Christ Wills for
her. This is why Jesus himself prayed
at the hour of his passion and does not cease praying to his
father for the unity of his disciples that they may all be
one as you father are in me and I am in you may they also be one
in us. So the world may know that you
have sent me. The desire to recover.
The unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the
holy spirit. So here, the Catholic teaching
is the desire to do ecumenism is, in fact, a good one one
that's motivated by the holy spirit because Jesus himself
wants Oneness in the church paragraph 690.
This is about the Son and the spirit, when Christ is finally
glorified, he can in turn, send the spirit from his place with
the father to the Those who believe in him, he communicates
to them his glory, that is the Holy Spirit, who glorifies him
from that time on this joint Mission will be manifested in
the children, adopted by the father, in the body of his son.
The mission of the spirit of adoption is to unite them to
Christ and make them live in him.
Lastly paragraph 2751, this is about Jesus prayer.
Finally, in this prayer Jesus reveals and gives to us the
knowledge in separately. One of the father and of the son
which is the very mystery of the life of Prayer.
So thank you for sticking with us through these past three or
four weeks, as we've looked at the complex teachings that Jesus
gives on Holy Thursday at the Last Supper in the farewell
discourse and now in the great High Priestly prayer.
I hope you'll agree that digging into it in this way.
Gives us so much richness that we might not get to think about
or understand. If we just listen to a sermon at
church, Thanks again for listening.
Please continue to share this podcast around and we'll see you
again tomorrow.