If you knew that the prayers you offered up today would be among your last, what would you pray for? Wouldn’t you focus on your highest priorities and most heartfelt desires – for yourself, for those dear to you? That’s what Jesus did. Our gospel passage today is part the last major prayer Jesus offered before his arrest and crucifixion. He had just spent three years in his public ministry sharing God’s love. Thousands of people had heard his message and seen and experienced his miracles. By his death, he would save humanity from the power of sin and open the door to eternal life. What else could there be on Jesus’ to-do list? What should he pray for?
The answer may surprise you. What he prayed for was us. Listen as he begins his final prayer: “Holy Father, I pray not only for them” – speaking of the followers of his day – “but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” As you just heard, he is praying first of all for those who come to believe in him, and then he’s praying for those who will believe in him through their message. That includes us 2,000 years later! Jesus’ final prayer was for his disciples and everyone, down through the ages, who would come to believe in him, including us. Why would Jesus pray for us?
Of course, the most important reason why Jesus would pray for us is to complete the mission his heavenly Father had sent him to accomplish: to lead us all back to him. God loves us all – in fact, he has made us for himself – and he wants us to be with him for all eternity. Through the sin of Adam and Eve, who chose to follow the temptations of Satan rather than the commands of God, we had been separated from God. But, from that time on, God has wooed us back to him. And, through his son, he has given us the way back.
Another reason why Jesus prayed for us is that there is more work to be done to complete Jesus’ mission, and you and I play an integral role in that mission. Jesus’ mission was to share the love of God with the people he encountered while he walked this earth. Then, after his Resurrection, he made it very clear that this work was supposed to continue, in every generation, through his Church. That is still true for us, we who are the Church today. You and I have been entrusted with the work of the Savior, and God will give us what we need to succeed in His service. You and I – we have been entrusted to carry on the work of the Messiah, the Deliverer, God in the flesh. I think you will all agree that the world needs to hear and experience God’s word of peace and love, especially today. So, God will give us what we need to be successful in the mission Jesus has entrusted to us.
Next week, when we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, we will be assured that God’s Spirit will accompany us as we take on that mission. And, Stephen, the first to die for the faith – as we heard in today’s first reading – gives us an example of how we are to do this work: with our eyes fixed on heaven and very much aware of the presence of God accompanying us.
What is it that you feel called to do because of your faith in Jesus Christ? So many of you are already responding generously by sharing your faith with your family, handing on your faith to your children. That’s very important work that our Lord entrusts to all families of faith. And, we are also called to join in the work of spreading our faith to the ends of the earth. We remain a missionary Church. And, the ground is ready for the harvest. As we hear Jesus declare elsewhere, the harvest is plenty but laborers are few.
And, there is an important condition we need to understand and accept to make our missionary work successful. Jesus’ final prayer includes a reminder that we are supposed to work together to complete the mission to which he has called us. This last prayer of our Lord is often called the Unity Prayer, and for good reason. Through our baptism, we are all welcomed into the family of God. And, our unity is proof to the world that Jesus is who he says he is. Listen to what Jesus says today: “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them even as you love me.” Jesus makes it clear that our unity will prove to the whole world that Jesus is the Son of God, and that God loves us.
There is much work to do to spread the message of Jesus around the world, starting in our own neighborhood. We, his followers today, are just as integral to his plan for the world as Christ’s first followers were. And, our unity multiplies our efforts far beyond what we could accomplish on our own. It is also a clear sign of our unity with God, who is a communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What is God calling each of us to do for the sake of spreading His message? And how can we join together with other believers around the world to accomplish it? That is the task that awaits the Church in every age. And, there is an urgency to this task because the world needs it so desperately and because, as we hear in today’s second reading, our Lord is coming soon and he will bring with him recompense to give to each according to his deeds. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!