“Father, the hour has come.”
With the seventh Sunday of Easter we are drawn back to the hour before Jesus was to suffer and die for us. We have spent seven weeks celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord. The Church is calling us to remember this final and longest prayer Jesus said in scripture, which is called the priestly prayer.
What is the priestly prayer? “At the end of the discourse of the Last Supper (chap. 13-16) begins what is called the Priestly Prayer of Jesus, which takes up all of chapter 17.” [1]
Why is it given the name “priestly prayer”? A priest is called to a life of sacrifice. A priest’s prayer includes the sacrifice of self and a sacrifice of the gifts at Mass. Jesus is the first among priests and all future priests follow His example. Jesus at the Last Supper institutes the Eucharist and shares out loud His prayer for His apostles. They are His priests and will come to understand the sacrifice He is giving. “It [the priestly prayer] is given that name because Jesus addresses his Father in a very moving dialogue in which, as Priest, he offers him the imminent sacrifice of his Passion and Death. It shows us the essential elements of his redemptive mission and provides us with teaching and a model for our own prayer.” [2] When we assist at the Mass, we offer the gift of our self in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. In the Divine Mercy Chaplet we remember this and meditate on this fact as we pray, “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son…” It is the priest, in the person of Christ that offers the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is our joy and privilege to assist in this offering.
How is the priestly prayer broken up? The Gospel reading of the priestly prayer is broken into three parts for cycle A, B, and C for the 7th Sunday of Easter. More specifically in regards to the prayer itself, “The Priestly Prayer consists of three parts: in the first (vv. 1-5) Jesus asks for the glorification of his holy human nature and the acceptance, by the Father, of his sacrifice on the Cross. In the second part (vv. 6-19) he prays for his disciples, whom he is going to send out into the world to proclaim the redemption which he is now about to accomplish. And then (vv. 20-26) he prays for unity among all those who will believe in him over the course of the centuries, until they achieve full union with him in heaven.” [3]
Why did Jesus pray this prayer out loud? Saint Augustine writes, “The Lord, the Only-begotten and co-eternal with the Father, could have prayed in silence if necessary, but he desired to show himself to the Father in the attitude of a supplicant because he is our Teacher… Accordingly this prayer for his disciples was useful not only to those who heard it, but to all who would read it.” [4] Jesus hides nothing from us. He wants to reveal the full mystery of divine revelation. With this prayer, Jesus invites us into the intimate union He has with the Father. Jesus reveals His hypostatic union.
What is the hypostatic union? The hypostatic union is “the union of the human and divine natures in the one divine person of Christ. At the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) the Church declared that the two natures of Christ are joined ‘in one person and one hypostasis’, where hypostasis means one substance. [5] The one divine person, Jesus Christ shows us His human nature. He is fully human and the humble servant to the Father. Jesus also shows us His divine nature. He is fully divine, the same substance as the Father and thus can reveal to us His glorification.
Search: Divinity is Red; Humanity is Blue
Why does Jesus focus on His glorification? Jesus focuses on giving and asking for glory now because His “hour” had come; the hour in which Jesus was going to die. Death in itself does not glorify God or give glory to anyone because it is death. However, death is essential because even out of the punishment of death God uses it to glorify Himself by rising from the dead. “In fact, [Jesus] mission cannot be completed with death – a dead man neither gives glory to God nor life to men; death is the first indispensable act, but necessarily demands a second: resurrection in glory. Precisely because he will rise again in glory after voluntarily accepting death, Christ will glorify the Father and will save mankind, having the power to give us eternal life. This is why, in asking for his own glorification, Jesus is but asking for the glory of the Father and the salvation of us all.” [6]
Why does Jesus pray for His apostles? Jesus prays for the apostles because He is the Good Shepherd. As the Good Shepherd, even to the final hour, He still looks after the flock which was entrusted to Him by His Father. Jesus truly loves them and all who follow and believe in Him. Jesus knew the sacrifice the apostles would have to endure once He was gone, but Jesus knows His apostles must remain on earth to continue the mission of God, and that He will watch over them. In the first reading we hear of Jesus ascending into heaven. The apostles return back to the upper room, the very place where Jesus prays His prayer in the gospel reading. “They have not forgotten the prayer of Jesus, which they will one day hand down to us in written form – and we can well imagine that they made it their own; they ask as he did for the glory of the Father and for salvation for men, and implore for themselves the help they need to be faithful witnesses to Christ.” [7] Once the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gives them that power to continue to fulfill that mission of glorifying God. In the second reading for this Sunday, Peter writes, “Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly…But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name.” [8] Peter knew well, and was reiterating the priestly prayer, the crucifixion, and showing it’s connection Jesus’s glorification in the resurrection. By uniting our sacrifices and sufferings with Christ we glorify God. We must not forget the words of Our Lord the day He rose from the dead. He said to the disciples walking to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” [9]
Starting at about the 21:00 minute mark Jim Caviezel discusses the claim, “Jesus died, and therefore, I don’t have too.” If this is true, why did all of the apostles have to suffer and die?
We, like the apostles, are called to glorify God, even in our sufferings and death. Like the apostles we have the benefit of the full divine revelation and thus should not be afraid to be faithful witnesses to Christ even in the midst of great persecution. We should look every day to glorify God “with prayer and good works, disposing [our] hearts to receive the Holy Spirit, praying for the Church and its shepherds, and for the salvation of all men.” [10]
Saint Augustine writes in the Spiritual Reading, “there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.” The Body of Christ is the Church. The members of the Body of Christ do what the head of the Body of Christ did. The mission of Christ and therefore the mission of the Church is twofold. “All the activities of the Church are directed, as toward their end, to the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God.” [11] This twofold end is accomplished most perfectly in the Liturgy, where the sanctification of man and the glorification of God take place.
[1] Navarre Bible Commentary pg. 201
[2] Navarre Bible Commentary pg. 201
[3] Navarre Bible Commentary pgs. 201-202
[4] St. Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 104, 2
[5] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary
[6] Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Vol. II pg. 231
[7] Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Vol. II pg. 232
[8] 1Pt. 4:13-16
[9] Luke 24:26
[10] Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Vol. II pg. 232
[11] Sacrosanctum Concilium; 10