Gospel: John 17:20-26

 

Today’s Gospel gives us the third and last part of the Priestly Prayer, in which Jesus looks toward the future and manifests His great desire for unity among us, His disciples, and that all may remain in the love which unifies, because without love and without unity we do not deserve credibility.

 

Unity does not mean uniformity, but rather to remain in love, in spite of tensions and conflicts. A love which unifies to the point of creating, among all, a profound unity like the unity which exists between Jesus and the Father. The unity in love revealed in the Trinity is the model for the communities. For this, through love among people, the communities reveal to the world the most profound message of Jesus. Tragic is the division among us Christians: if we are divided, we do not deserve credibility. 

 

Jesus is happy when we are all together with Him. The Gospel of John helps us to understand the mystery of the Trinity. 

 

From the text of St. John we see that the mission of the Son is the supreme manifestation of the love of the Father. The spirit of Truth comes from the Father. At the bidding of the Son, the Father sends the Spirit to each one of us in such a way that He will remain with us, encouraging us and giving us strength. The Spirit of Truth also comes to us from the Son. The Spirit cannot communicate a truth which is different from the truth of the Son. 

 

Everything which is in relationship with the mystery of the Son, the Spirit makes known to us. This experience of unity in God was very strong in the communities of St. John. They looked at the unity in God in order to understand the unity among themselves.