Jesus prays for you
Gospel Reflection
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
This week, before Pentecost Sunday, the descent of the Holy Spirit, we continue to pray earnestly, that the Spirit of God would grant us the gifts that He promised to us that we may be able to testify fully and boldly of the Good News of God's kingdom.
Jesus prays for you to the Father.
Yes, he does pray for you and we have heard this from our Gospel reading today, taken from John. How does this make you feel? I mean knowing that Jesus is praying to the father for you?
Today, we continue with the farewell discourse of Christ, but we are in the end part, where he prays to the Father. He lifts up his eyes and says: Father the hour has come. Yes, as this prayer ends his instructions to his disciples and starts his passion. What does this prayer teaches us?
Traditionally, in the week that follows the ascension of Jesus, we prepare ourselves with the descent of the Holy Spirit and open ourselves to accept the gifts of the spirit. We contemplate on these gifts, allowing it to permeate into our souls that we may be able to own it and equip ourselves in the evangelizing mission that Jesus has given us.
In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus asked the Father that he be glorified, and how will he be glorified?
His glorification is the cross, for by the cross he will conquer death and he will show to all the people, to us all, that the Father truly loves us, that the Father cares for us and this love of the Father for us will give glory to Him.
He will give us eternal life, with this he clarified what eternal life is and that is that we know God, the only true God, and the one whom God sent, Jesus Christ.
This knowledge, with this understanding we are able to know how we should live our lives, for whom our lives should be, and that is, that it be for God, that our lives would give glory to God.
Jesus's prayer for his disciples intends to give his disciples the assurance that they belong to God, and as such, it gives them the security that God will take care of them, no matter what, if only we would remain in him.
We belong to Him, we belong to God, what would make us worry?
So how does this first part of Jesus' prayer make you feel? Only you could know that, but know this, if it gives us fear, if it gives us anxiety, if it worries us, then we should look into ourselves and reevaluate our understanding of Christ's message.
Christ's message will always be that the Father loves us, that the Father cares for us and that because of this he sent his son to us.
As we continue our celebration of Easter and as we prepare ourselves for the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, let us be reminded that God loves us, he cares for us, we have been entrusted by the Son to the Father so that our lives would continue to give glory to him.
Let this be our prayer. Amen.
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