Gospel: Jn 17:20-26
I pray not only for these. but also for those who through their word will believe in me. May they all be one, as you Father are in me and I am in you. May they be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that you have sent me, and that I have loved them, just as you loved me. Father, since you have given them to me, I want them to be with me where I am, and see the glory you gave me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. As I revealed your name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I also may be in them.
Reflections
May they all be one, as you Father Are in me and I am in you Israel’s two sets of religious authorities: the Sadducees were a hereditary line of priests who offered sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem; the Pharisees were lay men, experts of the Torah, the Law of Moses, who taught in synagogues all over Israel. The Sadducees denied belief in the resurrection; the Pharisees upheld belief in such. No intellectual argumentation will prove the veracity of the resurrection save the encounter with the Risen Lord. Without the resurrection our Christian faith collapses. Our joy and confidence lie in the certainty of the resurrection of our Lord which he promises to share with us.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2018
