Word of the day

ACTS 20:17-27

From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
"You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.

"But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God."

JN 17:1-11A

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
"Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."

The apostle John reassures us that even when we sin we know that we have a lawyer before the Father: one who prays for us and defends us before the Father, and he absolves us.It is important, to carefully consider this truth, this reality: in this moment Jesus is praying for me. I can go forward in life because I have a lawyer who defends me. If I am guilty, I have many sins, Jesus is a good defense attorney and will speak about me to the Father. And Jesus, with his wounds, prays for us as if to say ‘Father, this is the price! Help them, protect them, they are your children whom I have saved’. Otherwise one would not understand why Jesus, after the Resurrection, had this glorious, beautiful body: there were no bruises, there were no cuts from the scourging — all were healed, but the five wounds were there. And Jesus wanted to take them to heaven to pray for us, to show the Father the price, as if to say: This is the price, do not leave them alone now, help them!. Jesus, pray for me, show the Father your wounds, which are also mine; they are the wounds of my sin, they are the wounds of my problem at this time. In this way Jesus is the intercessor who only shows his wounds to the Father — this happens today, at this time. Let us take the words of Jesus to Peter: ‘Peter I have prayed for you, that your faith may not diminish’. (Santa Marta, June 3, 2014)