John 17:1-11
Jesus loooked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorigy you, since you hve given him authority over all epople, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had in your sresence before the world existed.
I have made your name known to those whom you gave me fro the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in ther. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are i the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
Jesus prays to God the Father who is seemingly far away. In the same breath he acknowledges that God the Father is also near in the person of Jesus, who is one with the Father. Jesus asserts that the “only true God,” the One both near and distant, is to be known by humankind, not simply to be known in an intellectual manner, but in his words, “…so that they (humankind) may be one, as we (God the Father and the Son) are one.” The gap between what is near and what is distant is bridged in the lived experience of Jesus and in the lived experience of human persons. This is glorification!
ReplyDeleteGlory, doxa, is more than praising the magnificence and majesty of distant God. Glory is more than the exalted state of the Christ after he finished the work on earth given to him by the Father. Glory includes the human experience of participating in the “only true God,” being one “as we (the Father and Jesus) are one.” By making the will and the way of the Father and of the Son known on earth, by “finishing the work,” given to us, we humans also participate in the glory of God; we too are blessed, transfigured and raised up (glorified) with Jesus.
Incomprehensible God, founding red star furnaces, forever forging life;
Indigenous God, humming fragrant hymns, tendering naked flesh;
One true God, blessing of all that is, help me to finish the work on earth
that You have given to me, that I too may taste Your Glory. Amen