THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter 

Acts 20:28-38

Ps 68

John 17:11b-19

Holy Father, keep them in your name

In this morning’s gospel reading (Jn 17:11b-19), Jesus continues his prayer for his disciples, the beginning of which we heard in yesterday’s gospel reading. In the section of the prayer that we have just heard, Jesus prays that God would protect his disciples from the evil one. You may hear there an echo of one of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught to his disciples, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’. Jesus, it seems, was very aware of the presence of evil, of the evil one, in the world. He also knew that such evil would always be a threat to the lives of his disciples. Jesus took evil seriously. He knew his disciples needed to be protected from the power of evil. Yet, Jesus was not overly preoccupied with evil either, because he knew that the power of God was greater than the power of evil. He knew that, in the words of Paul, ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’. 

Just before Jesus began his great prayer in John’s gospel, he said to his disciples, ‘In the world you face persecution, but take courage, I have conquered the world’. We take evil seriously, yes, but we never allow its presence to make us despondent because we know that the light of the risen Lord’s presence will never be overcome by the power of darkness.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, take my life and make it wholly pleasing to you. Amen.

+Remain blessed