Gospel: John 17:11-19

 

We are now in the Novena of Pentecost, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given only to those who ask for it in prayer. In the Cenacle, for nine days, from the Ascension to Pentecost, the Apostles persevered in prayer together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and they obtained the abundance of the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

 

Today’s Gospel continues to place before us the Priestly Prayer of Jesus. It is a very opportune text to prepare ourselves during these days for the coming of the Holy Spirit in our life.

 

Jesus channels His concern into prayer: “Keep those You have given Me true to Your name, so that they may be one like Us!”. Everything which Jesus does in His life, He does in the Name of the Father. Jesus is the manifestation of the Name of God. The Name of God is Yahweh, JHWH. In the time of Jesus, this name was pronounced saying,  “Adonai,”  “Kyrios,”  “Lord.” 

 

In the discourse of Pentecost, Peter says that Jesus, because of His Resurrection, was constituted Lord. And Paul says that this has been done so that “every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God, the Father” (Phil 2:11). “It is the Name which is above all other names” (Phil 2:9). The Name of God, took on a concrete face in Jesus of Nazareth! Unity has to form around this name. Jesus wants the unity of the communities in such a way that they can resist the world which hates them and persecutes them. The people united around the name of Jesus will never be conquered!