The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus

Homily for Thursday of the Seventh Week in Eastertide

We have an exceptional privilege in these last chapters of St. John’s Gospel. Since the sixteenth century, this chapter of St. John’s Gospel has been called the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus. He speaks as intercessor, with words addressed directly to the Father and not to the disciples, who supposedly only overhear. Yet the prayer is one of petition, for immediate and future disciples. Many phrases reminiscent of the Lord’s Prayer occur. Although still in the world, Jesus looks on his earthly ministry as a thing of the past. Whereas Jesus has up to this time stated that the disciples could follow him, now he wishes them to be with him in union with the Father.

As Jesus speaks of his relationship with the Father, he asks that we might be in a similar relationship. This request for unity of God with the created universe draws us back to the very first chapters of the Book of Genesis. Because of Adam’s sin, access to God has been blocked. An angel with a fiery sword stands before the gates of the Garden of Eden. Adam had direct access to God as was demonstrated in the fact that in the evening God and Adam walked together in the breezy time of the day. That privilege was lost through Adam but is regained through Jesus. Jesus desires us to be one with the Father and with himself.

Through the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures, God practices self-revelation. God wants to be known. The final revelation is Jesus who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. God exists in this community of three persons in one God. If God exists in community, and we are created in the image of God, it is our task to build community in this world. As God sent Jesus to the world, Jesus sends us into the world.

Unity will only come about when we realize that all people are God’s children. The fundamental dignity of all human beings is found in the creative act of God. We must set aside differences and perspectives if we are ever to realize the unity for which Jesus prays.