John 17: 1-11

Jottings on John…Easter 7 (S after the Ascension)… May 28th 2017 

I align myself with those who see the Ascension as the completion of Easter season rather than a separate event or season. Best keep the Easter theme rather than be ‘side-tracked’ up into the sky. (I don’t mean to be unkind to those of you who see this differently!)

JN doesn’t deal with an Ascension. (Only LK/Acts & the so-called ‘longer ending’ of MK do.) What seems important is that we take on board, reproduce, the example Jesus praying shows us here. John features ‘glory’ Big Time. Not least in seeing Jesus’ death on the cross as His being glorified & God being glorified in that event. Now, 6 times in these few verses, Jesus uses forms of the word ‘glory’. Here we are privileged to watch & hear Jesus the Christ praying. In the closest communion with God a human being has ever been, can ever be. Letting us in on the inside to watch & hear Himself praying in a unique level of communion; of at-one-ness. With God, the Source of His being & ours.

Two experiences involving praying come to mind. First, is a lecturer almost causing a riot in a group of theologs by saying, “Your prayers don’t ever go past this ceiling!”. When we eventually realised what he meant, the atmosphere quickly turned from highly-charged to highly amused! Do we see the problem? 

The second relates to a young woman whose marriage was suddenly & without notice broken off by her fiance. She’d come & spoken with me after the bombshell was dropped. I doubt I was any real help in her state! Shortly after, meeting me in the street, & still clearly in a state of shock, she says to me, “Fr. Brian, I’ve been praying to myself again & again about this, & I’m still not getting any answers”. Again, I doubt I was much help! But we do see a problem, don’t we?

Jesus is holding out to us the possibility of becoming so close to God - having, dare I say, an ‘insider’s view’ of God’ - we can hold the kind of close conversation with God that He does. Have the same quality of relationship with God’. Are we, any of us, thinking, if not saying, ‘In your dreams!’? If so, can we know we’re at least on the Way to becoming so close to God we can experience such a relationship & not simply dream of it? No ceiling cutting off our prayers; no talking with oneself!