The Church today honors the sacred memory of the 318 great fathers who gathered in the city of Nicaea for the First Ecumenical Council. This occurred in the year 325 AD. One of the most important things that happened at that gathering was putting into exact terms the Christian belief in Christ the Son of God. We express that belief when we recite the creed that “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.” (The Sacred and Divine Liturgy of our Holy Father John Chrysostom)
Many people dislike praying because they can’t keep their mind on their prayer. Others feel that prayer takes up so much of their precious time that they just don’t seem to have the time to pray and so they neglect to do it. What they don’t seem to realize is that there is nothing more powerful than prayer. Our Gospel reading this morning finds Jesus in prayer speaking to His Father. The results of His prayer prove that prayer is extremely powerful indeed.
Jesus often prayed to the Father for guidance and strength. Today, in part, He pray begins with: “Father, the hour has come: Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you.” (John 17:1-2 TNJB). It isn’t often that we are privy to what Jesus is saying to His Father in prayer. But on this occasion, at the Last Supper, when all the apostles are present, Jesus prays this prayer. I am guessing that the Evangelist John felt it was important to let everyone know what Jesus prayed that evening, otherwise why would he mention what Jesus said? Perhaps John felt that as Jesus had so deeply touched the hearts of the Apostles with this prayer, everyone should know what He said and be touched by it as well. After all, Jesus is praying not only for His Apostles, but as John says, for “All those you have entrusted to Him.” (John 17:2 TNJB)
This priestly prayer, as it is called, was prayed by Jesus just before He entered Gethsemane and Golgotha. This portion of the Gospel is somewhat like a flight-recorder on an airplane. In the event that something should happen to a plane, the flight recorder would record the information, the inner workings, needed to determine what caused the plane to go down. Likewise, by this prayer, we can see into the inner workings of Jesus mind just before He is crucified.
Continuing in His prayer, Jesus tells His father that He has now completed the work which had been assigned to Him by the Father. Jesus fervently asks the Father to glorify Him and bring Him back to the Father. He wanted to be back with the Father just the way it was from the beginning before He was sent to be physically present with us. Some theologians feel that His asking to be glorified may seem a bit prideful. Not so!
When Jesus left the realm of heaven, He was formed in the womb of Mary. When the Word became flesh, He was lowered from the glory of Life that He had in heaven and brought down to earth. What He was asking for was the glorification of His human nature which He took from Mary, and not His divine nature which was never lost. His human nature also had the right to glorify God because of the union with Himself, who was God.
In the high priestly prayer Jesus asks for two things for Himself. He asks the Father for the courage and strength to persevere the suffering that is about to be put on Him, thereby glorifying God. The second thing that He asks for Himself is to go through with the ordeal so that He can give eternal life to those whom the Father has given Him. Notice, He prays not only for Himself, but also for us as well. He continues to pray for us while serving as a mediator between the Father and Himself.
If it was one of us who were to be crucified, we would need a great amount of courage and strength to get through the ordeal. Death on the cross was a cruel and barbaric form of punishment reserved for the worst of criminals. As Jesus was both divine and mortal, the mortal part of Him required just as much strength and courage as anyone of us would need in order to get through those trying times. Jesus received that strength from the Father when He prayed this high priestly prayer.
Jesus then explains to the Father that He’s always tried to be truthful with everyone in his teaching and asks the Father to bless all those whom the Father had given Him. Jesus was an excellent teacher who taught his disciples well. As a result of His teaching, His followers were convinced and believed that what Jesus was telling them came directly from the Father and was the truth. They believed that they would have everlasting life in eternity with the Father because of the Son. Jesus spoke with such authority that whatever He said was believable and could only come from the Father.
As an amateur photographer, I have often been asked to take photos of people at various events – maybe it was at a wedding, or for a school yearbook, or for the press. Well, some of the photos turned out very pleasing but some were not so flattering. The request has always been to destroy bad photos and keep only the good ones. This reminds me of an occasion when a painter came to paint the portrait of Pope John XXIII. His eminence told the portrait painter that, “If you paint my face, paints it warts and all.” He didn’t want to embellish or cover up the true image of himself. He wanted to be honest in all that he said or did. That is what Jesus was doing with His followers - telling it like it is. That too, should be our motto – to tell the truth at all times. In this way others will have no reason to doubt us.
In reflecting upon our own prayer, how would we describe it? What is our prayer like when we pray to the Father? Is it a warm and personal conversation with God? Is it slow and attentive? Is it both spiritual and outwardly? Many prayers are done by rote quickly and without feeling. Or, when we pray, our mind may not be on our prayer but wandering. That’s when we lose our connection with God. So if at times when repeating a prayer from memory causes your mind to wander, why not make up a prayer of your own at such a time and then you will be able to keep your mind on what you want to say and stay connected with God.
As mentioned earlier, Jesus constantly prays for us in the Holy of Holies. We too can reciprocate by constantly praying to God. The saintly Abbot Isaiah, an Egyptian Hermit, introduces us to the Jesus prayer. It’s a short prayer that’s easy to remember: “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I like to compare this prayer to a burglar alarm in the house. If I’m in bed and a thief happens to break into my house, the alarm goes off and lets me know very quickly that something is amiss. The Jesus prayer is like having Jesus voice within us that constantly keeps watch over me. When the Jesus prayer is perpetual, that being the purpose of this prayer, the evil one cannot break through because the one who keeps watch is Jesus, and He is always there.
At the start, the prayer can be repeated out loud or running through our mind but with close attention to the prayer and free from all evil thoughts. As the prayer is repeated over and over again, after a while it begins to become a part of our being as it runs through your minds constantly. Eventually it turns into a prayer that is internalized by constant repetition and continues on even when we are fast asleep. In this way the prayer does not allow evil to penetrate our being at any time. It should bring forth an inner peace, love, gratitude, and humility to our lives.
But if the prayer fails to do that, Tito Colliander writes that, “If you are, on the contrary, tense and stirred up, in high spirits or in deep despair, if you feel contrition or bitterness or an exaggerated will to action, if you are thrown into ecstatic experiences or a drunkenness of the senses, such as you enjoy when listening to music, if you feel a supreme enjoyment or satisfaction so that you are ‘content with yourself and the whole world,’ you are on the wrong road. You have built altogether too much on yourself. Sound your retreat and go back to the self-reproach that must always be the starting–point for every true prayer. The angels of light always bring peace, the peace that the demons of the dark wish at all cost to disturb. By this, say the holy fathers, one can recognize the evil powers and separate them from the good,” (Way of the Ascetics – Tito Colliander, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Crestwood, New York 10707, 1994 pp 97 & 98)
Sincere prayer fulfills the requirement for the release of divine power. Jesus shows us that through prayer there is victory. History also proves that very same point. When we strive by hard work and effort to accomplish some insurmountable task, we may find ourselves unable to accomplish the task by our own power. So, when we get to the point when we are facing a difficult situation remember what Jesus did when things were getting tough.
Amen!
