Jesus’ final prayer at the Last Supper (John 17) is a prayer for His disciples. He prays for their continued loyalty to the Gospel message and for unity among them.
They have accepted the message of Jesus and, because of that, He foretells that they will be hated by the world as Jesus Himself was hated. Like Jesus, they will not identify with the world and its values and priorities. At the same time, Jesus makes it very clear that He is not asking that they be removed from the world’s environment, only that they be protected from its evil influences. It is only by being in the world that they will be able to communicate the Gospel message to the world. Armed with truth, with the integrity of Jesus Himself, He is sending them into the midst of the world. That is where they are to do their work. They were, as He said elsewhere, to be “the salt of the earth” and the “yeast in the dough.”
All of what Jesus prayed at the Last Supper applies equally to us, for we too are His followers. Jesus prays that we be consecrated in truth, the truth of God Himself. Let’s remember that this truth does not consist of a set of dogmas. Rather it consists of living with integrity and wholeness, in perfect harmony with the will of the Father and the Way of Jesus. It challenges us to remain dedicated to bringing that truthfulness and integrity to the world. We do this by living with a love that is expressed in service to others, aimed at the well-being of all. We have the full backing of Jesus: “I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
Let us then pray today for the unity among us which Jesus prayed for in His first disciples, that we may be ready for the hostility or the indifference of the world, that we may realize that, if we want to give witness to the Gospel, we must be fully inserted into the world which surrounds us. After all, to be ‘holy’ is not to escape from that world, but to transform it and make it more Christ-like. May the Lord give us sufficient grace to be filled with truth and sincerity, so that what people see in us is what we truly are: followers of Jesus.
