In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites us in a special way into a quiet, secluded place to sit beside Him as He speaks intimately with His Father, about us. So often in the Gospels, we see our Lord go off to pray alone: climbing a mountain in the early morning or seeking solitude after a day spent among the crowds. These moments were private. Only once did He include us, when He taught us how to pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
Yet, today, it is different. He is about to ascend to the Father, and He chooses to give us a privileged place for those who believe. He loves us so much; he wants to share the deepest joy with us that He knows, which is union with the Father, the union in the Godhead He experienced even before the Creation of the world. Finally, He pleads with His Father to take care of us, those whom He loves, who are left in “the exile of the world.”
“…Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one….I guarded them, and not one of them was lost…and I speak these things in the world so that they may have joy made complete in themselves…..I am not asking for you to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one….”
Safe in the Father’s Care
To really understand the richness of this conversation, take the time to start at John 16:25 until the end of today’s Gospel. We hear His words plead for us, those He loves, to keep us safe in His Fatherly care. Our Lord, still the Good Shepherd, is ascending back to His place next to His Father and so returns the Father’s mission back to Him. For, he came not just to save us from sin but to restore the covenant and love of the Father with us, His Creation.
Beautiful Truth
A beautiful truth is also revealed to us as Christ pleads with His Father on our behalf, showing us the vulnerability of His heart for us. This is another way he tells us how much he loves us. You hear the tone of his voice in this passage of love and friendship. “They are like me, Father. They will be persecuted just like me. And, they are my friends, not just my followers and I love them.” He knows that although we are sinful, we are carrying on his heart of truth and joy to others in the world, and intercedes one last time for us, to ask the Father for His love and strength to be given to us as it was to Him.
We are taught another lesson: vulnerability is a gift when shared in the intimacy of a trusted love, like that of our Lord with His Father. He shared that with us, you and me.
Pray about this. Sit with this reality. Do we allow ourselves to be vulnerable in our prayer with God? Do we lay bare our wounds? Are we vulnerable to others we trust or them with us, in a world that promotes unauthentic images and false realities?
You are Loved by Him as a Friend
This reflection is intentionally short, so that you can spend more time just sitting with Jesus. Picture Him speaking to the Father with you by His side, just like when you bring a dear friend home and introduce them to your parents. Your friend may be quiet or unsure, but your dad welcomes them with open arms because you care about them. Your father sees this and, naturally, offers love, safety, and perhaps even guidance in turn.
This is how Jesus introduces you to His Father as He is about to go home. Our Lord trusts you and so is willing to allow us into the vulnerable places of His heart. Isn’t that incredible? He knows your heart more deeply than you know it yourself. We often repeat, “Jesus, I trust in You,” but today, let us ask to experience the trust He has in us.
Read today’s Gospel and spend time journaling about how loved and protected you feel by the Lord. Do you feel the Father welcoming you into the same intimacy He shares with the Son?
Let yourself be vulnerable. Open your heart. Rest with Him.
Invite Him
Soon the Holy Spirit will be coming. Invite Him in. Tell Him you Love Him too. Soon, your heart will no longer be troubled but filled with His Peace. Our Lord may be talking to His Father in this passage, but He is also teaching us how to prepare our hearts for the Love of the Holy Spirit that unites the Father and Son and makes them one. The Holy Spirit is the Love between the Father and the Son, welcome Him into that same relationship of yours with the Father and the Son.
John 17: 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us….”
