The Father’s Word Is Truth
Jn 17:11b-19
[Raising his eyes to heaven, Jesus said,] 11“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. 12When
I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I
guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction,
in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.
14I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 15I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 17Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
KEEP THEM IN YOUR NAME. The
“name” marks a person’s individuality, distinguishing one from another.
In biblical language, it speaks for the whole person. Thus, when we are
baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit,” we are inserted into the life and mystery of the Most Holy
Trinity.
When
Jesus says that he protects his disciples “in the name” of the heavenly
Father, he means that he cares for them in the person of and with the
authority of God himself. With his return to the Father, he asks the
Father to continue protecting the disciples from the dangers of the
world and keeping them from sin.
Jesus
leaves his disciples with the awareness that they will undergo trials.
But in these trials they are “consecrated,” set aside for holiness. They
are not spared from suffering on account of their faith in Jesus. But
through these tribulations, they will be saved.
“The clouds that cover the sunshine,
they cannot banish the sun.
And the earth shines out the brighter
when the weary rain is done” (Anonymous).
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