SAINT NICHOLAS

Byzantine Catholic Church
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4700 Metro Parkway, Sterling Heights, Michigan 48310  *   +1-586-791-1052   *   stnicksbyzantine@yahoo.com

The Priestly Prayer of Jesus Christ

    “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him. And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ. “I have glorified you on earth by completing the work that you entrusted to me. So now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to understand that everything you gave me is from you. For the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they have accepted them and know with certainty that I have come from you, and they have believed that you sent me. “It is for them that I pray. I do not pray for the world, but for those you gave me because they are yours. Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and through them I have been glorified. I will remain no longer in the world, but they will still be in the world while I will be coming to you.

    “Holy Father, protect by the power of your name those you have given me, so that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them I protected them by your name that you have given me, and I kept them safe. Not one of them was lost, except the one destined to be lost, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. “Now I am coming to you, and I say these things while I am still in the world so that my joy may come to full measure in them.

• This sublime prayer reveals the ultimate meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice. This is  the “priestly prayer,” but it is also a “missionary” prayer, since at the moment when there seems to be nothing but failure and isolation, Jesus adheres to God’s plan. He is entirely the One Sent, who completes the mission given to him by the Father. He thinks only of this mission that his disciples must continue.

• The word “glory” speaks of the greatness of God, of his final intervention, of his presence that gives strength, meaning, and fulfillment to people. Paradoxically, this glory is revealed in the destiny of Jesus, glory that is manifested during the Passion. One observes the love that was given to Christ for all eternity, love that became eternal life, shared by believers.

• People who have accepted the words of Jesus are no longer trapped in worthlessness, emptiness, and falsehood—in everything that is a denial of God and what is here called “the world.” Their future is not in running away but in being insulted and giving testimony. The trial of Jesus continues in these people. May they remain in truth and faith; may they not become a prey of the falsehood, worthlessness, and unbelief that are the face of the Evil One or of Evil.