Reading 1
After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles
returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day’s journey away.
When they entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Gospel
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
Reflection
Today’s readings portray a beautiful parallel between Jesus praying for the Apostles and the Apostles devoting themselves to prayer, and these two scenes offer us important lessons for our own prayer lives.
The Gospel has the beginnings of what our tradition calls “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer,” when He prays for and on behalf of His people. His opening petition is: “Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you…” This request is not an arrogant plea for honor, but rather a desire to glorify the Father. Jesus’ glory is inseparable from the Father’s, as He shows when He says: “Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.”
The way that Jesus structures His prayer with this opening petition for God’s glory is echoed in how He teaches His disciples—and all of us—to pray in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. When He gives us the Lord’s Prayer, He tells us to begin: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” While English translations don’t always make it clear, this line is actually a petition, more like “let Thy name be hallowed.” In other words, we pray that God would be glorified. Christ knows this should be the first petition on our hearts when we pray, and His own prayer is no different.
When the Apostles, along with Mary and relatives of Jesus, devote themselves to prayer in our first reading, we can imagine that they would put into practice this prayer for glory that Jesus taught and demonstrated.
Jesus knows that His path to glory is through the Cross, His Resurrection, and then Ascension into Heaven. So, aware that He will be leaving them, He prays for the Apostles who “are in the world, while I am coming to [the Father].” The Apostles seem to have taken these words to heart, for they too respond to Jesus’ return to Heaven by praying. They know that, without Jesus walking among them, they require God’s grace and guidance all the more.
We can imitate the Apostles not just in that they prayed but also in how they prayed. They prayed in communion with each other and Mary, Mother of God. Likewise, praying together for the glory of God, asking the Blessed Mother for her intercession, is the lifeline of the Church. In this Anniversary Year for the Diocese of Allentown, which is a Eucharistic and Marian Year, it is even more fitting that we dedicate ourselves, alongside Mary, to the glory of God.
Join me in praying like Jesus and the Apostles, with Mary, for God’s glory and the future of the Church.
Please be assured of my prayers for you before Our Lord, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
+ Bishop Schlert
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