NOTES for Joh 17:20-26
Before us is the Last Supper, the farewell discourse with the disciples. Today the Church offers us what would seem to be only seven verses from several long chapters in which Jesus speaks one last time with the future apostles. There is so much that must be said before His “departure”—they must be prepared for the principal trial of their lives... That is precisely why these verses are so full—Jesus cannot allow Himself to waste time either on superfluous words or on lengthy explanations. The disciples are in any case unable to understand everything He is saying now, but later the Spirit will come and remind them of everything (see John 14:26). He will remind them of this prayer of the Teacher, of His ardent desire for the unity of His disciples and of all those who will believe through their testimony. And the words “that they may become perfectly one” mean far more than shared ideologies, aspirations, and the like—they concern perfect unity, uniting every sphere of our lives. Jesus also prays that every person may know that the Father has loved them as He has loved the Son (see John 17:23). For it is precisely this knowledge that can transform the world, uniting all people in the unity for which our Lord waits.