He and they will be glorified by their Father in Heaven. But let our prayer be, “ May Thy Kingdom come on earth also, Lord Jesus, and Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. STATION V. I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them, and they have kept Thy word (v. 6). I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given to Me. Christian priests! Christian parents! Christian teachers.! “ Attendite." Let us listen to these words and learn what our duty is. We have to make God more known to those whom God has given to us. These children, these poor people entrusted to me- “ Thine they were, O my God, and to me Thou gavest them. O God, grant that I may have the grace so to train them that hereafter I may be able to say: They have kept Thy word.” STATION VI. Now they have known that all the things Thou hast given Me are from Thee. Because the words which Thou gavest to Me I have given to them, and they have received them and have known in very deed that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me (vv. 7, 8). A. Our Blessed Saviour's constant.endeavour is to make it known that all that He has comes from His Father. St. Paul presses this lesson upon us: What hast thou that thou hast not received ? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received ? (1 Cor. iv.). Our most earnest desire ought to be that all our words and works may begin from Thee, dear Lord, and by Thee be happily ended ; that so there may be nothing that is merely our own in our teaching or our enterprises. For whatever is only from me, is ill done, whatever is well done is Thy work, O Lord. “ Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.” If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the power which God administereth, that in all things God may be honoured through Jesus Christ, to Whom is glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen (1 St. Peter iv.). STATION VII. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me, because they are Thine (v. 9). In this special parting prayer, our Lord is praying for these chosen disciples, begging for them the large graces which their state will require, begging His Father to have mercy on them according to His great mercy, which, as the devout Father Segneri writes, includes a large share of the Cross. He is not now praying for the world ; but elsewhere He does pray for the world; as, for instance, on the Cross : Father, forgive them. And later on, in this very prayer He begs that the disciples may be one in order that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. There is a world for which our Lord prays and works ; thus St. John writes : God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him (iii. 17). St. Paul also writes : For God indeed was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. v.). And again, God wishes all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy ii.). If our Lord excludes the world from His prayer, it is, St. Augustine writes, only those who obstinately adhere to sin, and to the anti-Christian spirit of the world. STATION VIII. And all My things are Thine and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them (v. 10). A. In these words our Blessed Saviour once more clearly teaches His own Divinity and equality with His Father. Speaking as the Son of Man, He had said, Thine they were, to Me Thou gavest them. But He now adds, as Son of God: All Thy things are Mine, and I am glorified in them, because Thy glory is My glory. B. Our Father in Heaven said to the elder son who was jealous of the returned prodigal : Thou art always with Me, and all that I have is thine (St. Luke xv.). What is the will of our good God but to share all that He can share with each of us ? If then we will only with filial hearts believe in this loving liberality of God, we too can say with our Lord: All my things are Thine (O my God), and Thine are mine. STATION IX. And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world ; and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy His Death is so near that He speaks as if it were come. Moreover, once His Sacred Passion begins, He is practically taken away from His disciples. B. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name. This is a parting cry of His Heart for His little flock; for He is full of compassion for their coming bereavement, and with all the tenderness and earnestness of His charity He beseeches His Father to protect them. Keep them in Thy name. That is, “ May Thy name of Father, and Thy name of God, be sanctified in them. May Thy name be a reality to them. May they always find a protection in Thy name. May they always draw strength and hope and love from their belief that Thou art their Father and their God.” One valued commentator, Father Ribera, thinks that in these words our Blessed Lord prays for His Apostles, and obtains what He asks, that they may never during their apostolic career fall away from grace by mortal sin. C. That they may be one as We also are. Here is another chief desire of His Heart, that the unity of the Most Blessed Trinity may be represented in His Church; and some of the most esteemed commentators think that in making this prayer He is expressing what the Blessed Eucharist is to do. The bread is made out of many grains of wheat. The wine is the juice of many grapes. The many grains and the many grapes become His one Body and His Sacred Blood. Then in the next place His one Body and Blood becomes the food of all His disciples; and they do not convert this food into their substance, but they are all changed by it and become one body and His members: Of His flesh and of His bones (Ephes. v.). Now therefore the cry of our Lord's Heart is that this union and unity may be perfect: that all may have one faith, one Baptism, one Holy Sacrifice, one Heavenly Banquet to nourish them; one mind and one heart: all loving one God and one Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake loving cordially one another. STATION X. While I was with them I kept them in Thy name. Those whom Thou gavest Me have I kept (v. 12). A. Those whom Thou gavest Me have I kept. How happy the death-bed of Christian parents and Christian priests, and Christian Superiors, and all in charge of others, if they can say humbly when dying: While I was with them I kept them in Thy name. Those whom Thou gavest me have I kept. This great grace given to them is better than length of days, better than all earthly glory. O Lord, Thy mercy is better than lives (Psalm lxii.). B. I kept them in Thy name. That is, as Thy delegate. How often our Saviour reminds us of this fundamental truth, that man is only God's steward! A steward gives leases and collects rents in his master's name. Therefore St. Paul writes: All things whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things do ye in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. iii.). C. In Thy name. How much more easy it is, when we have charge of others, to keep them safe if we keep them in God's name, than if we act independently in our own names! So long as we act in God's name, God acts with us and in us. How much better is work done when God does it, than when we do it! D. In Thy name. What wonders men have wrought when they speak and act in God's name! St. Peter said to the lame man at the Beautiful Gate: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk, and he leaping up stood and walked and went (Acts iii.). When God sent Moses to speak to Pharao in His name, He said to him: I have appointed thee the God of Pharao (Exodus vii.). And we have heard our Lord promise that His faithful disciples who act in His name, shall do the works I do, and greater than these shall they do (St. John xiv.). E. In Thy name. Satan and all his ministers are much troubled and alarmed when a man speaks in the name of Christ Jesus. The High Priest, when the Apostles were brought before the Council, said to them : Commanding we commanded you that you should not teach in His name. And after they had scourged them, again they charged them that they should not speak at all in the name of Jesus. St. Peter's answer was: We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts v.). With St. Peter and St. Paul then, we will try to do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. |