Breakfast With the Word Tuesday Seventh Week of Easter
John 17:1-11
When we go through the prayer of Jesus in this chapter, we will certainly see a heart that is full of love for His disciples. We see the heart of someone whose concern is on the welfare of His disciples. He is thinking about what the future holds for them.
Therefore, Jesus also thinks of you. He thinks of you when your heart is troubled. He also thinks of you when you feel like giving up on Him. As He prays for His disciples today, He also prays for you.
Jesus Loves You.
After, spending time encouraging and advising His disciples, Jesus begins to pray for them. Anyone who truly prays for you loves you.
In this prayer, we see a heart that loves us. We can see someone eager to do anything just for the sake of our good.
Today, Jesus prays just one intention on his behalf but three intentions for those who belong to Him. He prays for their protection, eternal life and oneness.
Jesus says in the gospel “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
In another one, He says “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him, that they may be one, as we are one. This is a sign that Jesus does not want to lose any of them. Jesus does not want to lose you. Jesus thinks of you all the time. He does everything possible for us to be close to Him. The problem is that we choose to be lost.
Remember that Jesus says this prayer before He went into agony. While in agony the apostles deserted him. Those who seem to be so close ran away at Gethsemane and denied Him three times but to prove His love for them, after the resurrection, He still came looking for them. What a love?
Jesus knows they did what they did out of fear and human weakness. He understands them more than anyone. What Jesus wants is for the good of all that truly belongs to Him.
Jesus thinks of you when you fail out of human weakness. The same way, He did after the resurrection, He will come searching for you.
If Jesus can do this while He was on earth, knowing truly well that the people He is praying for will abandon Him later, you could imagine that He will hardly leave them still while in the right hand of the Father despite anything. We could imagine how constantly He will continue to pray for us. This is Jesus love for us.
The promise “I will be with you until the end of time” ( Matthew 28:20) becomes clear and apparent here. No wonder the Church stands firm despite many attacks on her. Our mediator is on the throne.
Beloved, Jesus has you at the palm of His hands. He has you in His heart. The worst mistake one can do is to think that this kind of heart that took time to ask on behalf of His disciples can ever hate or abandon you. The message is that nothing can separate us from his love and mercy. Jesus thinks of you, He asks you to approach His throne of grace to encounter mercy and grace.
Whenever we are surrounded by uncertainties of life and hard moments, do not forget that we are also surrounded by the protection that Jesus has prayed for. Let us always fill our minds with this awareness.
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The Problem.
In today’s gospel, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God. he says “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”.
Our problem is that we truly do not know Him and we do not make a sincere effort to come to a knowledge of Him. We are more concerned about the world than God. We see God as someone who is very far and does not care for us.
To know God is not just head knowledge. It means intimacy with God, the kind of intimacy we develop with those we truly love. To be enveloped by this intimacy is to experience how eternal life will be like.
This involves creating a deep bond with the Father, to constantly be at peace with Him. To be in touch with Jesus is to be in touch with eternal life. So, Jesus thinks of you, He thinks of our end. He wants us to be with Him at the end of our earthly life.
Let us yearn for Him because He thinks of you and knows every plan for you and against you. Relationship with Jesus is the best life anyone can live.
May God bless you dearest and may you encounter Jesus today in a special way. May His prayer today also bear fruit in our lives. Amen.
