NOTES for Joh 17:20-26

We may say that we should count ourselves fortunate, because we can “hear” how our God prayed and because He prayed for us. As we read His prayer closely, we see something like concentric circles: Jesus; His disciples, the apostles for whom He prays at the beginning of John 17; and we, the third circle, who believe in Him through the apostles' word (see John 17:20). Why are we only in the third circle, we might ask? That seems rather distant! Yet at the same time hardly any of us would claim the apostles' role and cross... But let us look from the other side: He prays for us too; we too are very important to Him, and before His death He remembers each of us. Moreover, what does Jesus pray for? For unity—not just any unity, but the fullness found only between Him and the Father (see John 17:21)! Earlier He prays for unity for the disciples, and now for us. Then it becomes clear that each of us is, for Him, an apostle called to proclaim the Good News and to “unite” the world in love.