St. Cornelius and Cyprian
Joh 17:6a.11b-19
I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us. While I was with them, I kept those you had given me true to your name. I have watched over them and not one is lost except one who was destined to be lost, and this was to fulfil the scriptures. But now I am coming to you and I say these things in the world to share my joy with them to the full. I passed your word on to them, and the world hated them, because they belong to the world no more than I belong to the world. I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth.
Again, as we read in the sacred texts, we realize how essential it is to our Lord Jesus to glorify the Father. The name of God should be revealed through him, people should know the goodness of God.
Jesus receives the people who follow Him from the hand of the heavenly Father as a gift and as a mission, and asks His Father to keep them in His name. He guards them like the good shepherd, and we know that he will then give his life for the sheep.
Jesus knows very well how endangered people are, especially when they often think that they can establish an autonomous goverment that does not need the relationship with God.
God, however, calls man into an intimate communion with him and from this comes the true and lasting unity of men as children of our Heavenly Father: the kingdom of God. Human works break down after some time and even if their tower seems as high as a “tower building in Babel”. The different kingdoms of this world come and go. They quickly will disappear when there is no true foundation, when sin, corruption, and injustice come in.
The intimate communion of love with God into which Jesus leads his disciples – on the other hand – remains because it is a union in God. This is the reason for the joy that Jesus gives: the joy in God, the joy of living with him in unity, the joy of knowing him, the joy of being able to serve him.
But the disciple of the Lord also remains endangered on the earth and is urged to be vigilant, for he can encounter hatred and rejection. Jesus does not paint a picture of a world that embraces faith and we believers should embrace the world. That is an illusion. There will be no paradise on earth.
The Church must remain vigilant and not be seduced into working with other religions, institutions and governments to bring about a world peace not based on God. This would be a wrong peace that can very quickly turn into a dictatorship and persecute Christians. The spirit of the Antichrist can hide behind seemingly good goals in order to deceive people.
The words of the Lord, on the other hand, are realistic and true. His children should live in the world, but not be of this world, i.e. their thinking and actions must be determined by the Holy Spirit and not by a spirit of the world if this spirit contrasts God.
The task of the disciples is to proclaim the gospel to this world and to penetrate the world with the leaven of truth and not to let the truth of the Gospel be distorted by the poison of various ideologies.
In this sacred mission, we Christians can rely on the prayer of the Lord, who today tells us that we will be saved from evil, that He has prayed for us to His Father.
Let us therefore remain in the word of the Lord and take the word deep within us like Our Lady did. This is the orientation for us, whatever worldly ideas and concepts may come to us – even within the Church!
With the word of the Lord we learn to distinguish, for it is the voice of our shepherd that we follow. His sheep will only follow him, and he will keep them!
Harpa Dei accompanies the daily scriptural interpretation or spiritual teaching of Br. Elija, their spiritual father. These meditations can be heard on the following website www.en.elijamission.net