One of the most beautiful things that we can do for someone that we love, is to pray for them. We pray for our family, our friends, and yes…even a way to begin to “love our enemies” which is commanded of us is to learn to pray for them. Prayer at its very core is a sign of our love for God and for each other.
In the Gospel for the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, we see a type of prayer that is somewhat unique. It is what is called “The High Priestly Prayer”, and it is an intimate prayer between God the Only Begotten Son, and God the Father…(which if you think about it, is really mind blowing in itself).
What is God the Son praying for to God the Father? Where is His mind set, even though He is about to be crucified on the Cross? On you…on me…on his disciples…on mankind…on the very people who will deny Him…who will Crucify Him…Who will pierce His side with a spear….Who have squandered the very life that He Himself Gave to them…
This prayer really does take on a new meaning when we understand that we are all, as Christians and followers of Christ, Disciples. Therefore, this prayer is one that we can hear being spoken directly for us…sitting here and reading it in the Year of our Lord 2025. My hope today is that we all will learn to hear this prayer in a new way. Rather than reading the pronouns that Christ uses to describe His Disciples, insert your own name in the place of some of the pronouns, and offer a personal reflection on what these prayers, said by God to God, have done for you in your own life:
God the Son spoke to God the Father saying:
“Father…I have manifested Your Name to ______, whom You gave to me out of the world…I pray for ______ (John 17:6)
“I do not pray for the world, but for ______ whom You have given me…For He/She is yours…”(John 17:9)
How humbling is it to know that my Lord, in a very intimate, warm and personal prayer with the Father, has His mind set on me…despite the many times I have turned my back on Him through my own sins…
Despite the times I have squandered my inheritance as Human Beings, polluting the earth and bearing little fruit…
Despite the many times I have wasted the gifts and talents He has bestowed upon me…
Despite the times I have rejected and denied Him in favor of the very “world” that find myself entrenched in…
Now, I am not longer in the world, but ______ is in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father, Keep through Your name _____ whom you have Given Me, that He/She may be one as We are.” (John 17:11)
How comforting it is for me, that the High Priestly Prayer that Jesus began on earth didn’t end after He was crucified. This past week, I watched on the Holy Feast of Ascension, how the angels stood amazed as Jesus took our human flesh up into the Kingdom for all Eternity. How can I ever be discouraged or anxious about anything in life, when I am armed with the knowledge that the risen and ascended Word of God offers prayers and love for me from the Throne of Heaven?
I have given _____ Your word, and the world has hated him/her because he/she is not of the world. I do not pray that you should not take him/her out of the world, but that you should keep him/her from the evil one...Sanctify Him/Her by Your truth…because Your word is Truth. (John 17:14)
As we say in the litanies…if I were to commend myself, each other, and my whole life to Christ, I would cease to be of the world. I wouldn’t care about wealth. I would never think to walk past someone in need. I would be able to see suffering and death in my own life in a holy way. Why? Because true Christians dwell in the world, but they do not belong to the world. My eyes, just as the Apostles on the day of Ascension, would be fixed upward, “looking for the life of the world to come.”
Why do I so struggle with this? Why is my life mired in sin…where I constantly get sucked back into the fallen world? Knowing what I know in my heart of hearts, why does my gaze cease to look upon things above? Why do I feel like the paralytic, hunched over and constantly staring down at my feet?
This is one of the reasons why I need prayer. It is one of the reasons why I need multiple Divine Liturgies during the week. It is one of the reasons why I need to surround myself with the scriptures, with the lives of the saints, and with my brothers and sisters in Christ…to continually remind my weakened mind where it is I need to be going…towards God and His Truth.
For ______’s sake…I sanctify Myself, that He/She also may be sanctified by the Truth. (John 17:19)
Next week on Pentecost, I will witness the end of an incredible journey…one that started about 100 days ago with the beginning of Great Lent. I watched as our Lord walked to Golgotha and allowed Himself to be crucified in order to destroy death itself. He did these things for MY sake…that I might live my life as one that can be sanctified (set apart from the world) by the Truth.
Glory to God for His Love for me. Glory to God for His attention towards me…the protos (first) of sinners. Glory to God for all that He has done for me…for us…and for the world. Amen.