John 17:1-11
I pray for them; I am not praying for the world
but for those you have given me, because they belong to you:
all I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified.
As we have journeyed through Eastertide our Biblical imaginations have been fed by the rich theological world of John’s Gospel. I have come to realise that some Johannine motifs don’t yield their meaning all at once. I am always looking for interpretative keys.
Jesuit, Victor Cancino, speaks of John’s Gospel inviting the believer to ‘enter into the mystery of trinitarian love and experience its results.’
He sees this encounter as having the characteristics of a dance:
‘There is a circular movement of love between Father and Son, and this has the power to draw the disciples in as well. As they participate in the dance, they discover that the life of Christ is already at work in them.’
In today’s Gospel the intimacy of the love between Christ and the Father underpins all that is said. Christ prepares to go willing and freely to his death and therein lies one meaning of ‘glory’. He has fulfilled his earthly mission. His will and his Father’s will are closely intertwined: ‘all I have is yours and all you have is mine’. The disciples are very much part of that dynamic too: ‘and in them I am glorified.’
In our broken lives, Christ is at work in us too. In our triumphs of love and our falls from grace, we too are drawn deeper into the mystery of Trinitarian love.
Look back over your week.
Where have you been drawn deeper into the mystery of God’s love?
Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash