Reflection on the Seventh Sunday of Easter

This Gospel reading from John is the longest prayer in all the Bible. Somewhere around the 17^th century it came to be called “the Priestly Prayer.” I personally find this prayer very dense and would call it  “the why use one word when 100 will do?”  But nevertheless, it has a lot to teach us. 

The entire Gospel of John was written at least 40 years after Jesus was crucified. Tradition has it that it was written by John the Disciple, one of only two disciples who were not killed by the Romans. What most scholars think now is that there was a community of people who followed John and this Gospel, plus the letters of John and the book of Revelation were written by one or more of them.  

Certainly, this Gospel was written by someone very familiar with all the stories of Jesus. The author imagines in a very lyrical and mystical way what Jesus would have said, particularly the day of the Last Supper. But this author is also trying to inspire and instruct a Christian community very much under attack by the Roman Empire. This person must write in a way that Christians will understand the references, but so that the persecutors will not. Keep in mind that this prayer would be read aloud as almost no one would have had a written copy, and a large cross section of the listeners would not be able to read, in any case. Imagine hearing it and trying to figure out what it meant.

This prayer is given toward the end of the Last Supper. We call it that now, but of course the only person who could have known that was Jesus. It has already been a long day preceded by some other long days. And this day is far from over. On to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ arrest, his mock trial, and the next day, his crucifixion. This meal starts with Jesus washing everyone’s feet. Then, according to the Gospel, Jesus goes on and on with basically the same theme repeated over and over, “I am leaving you. You are staying here.” And with almost increasing desperation, “I leave you with a new command, that you love one another.”  

The disciples are awash in confusion and anxiety. They pepper Jesus with questions: “Where are you going? Why can’t we come? Why are you washing our feet?” and to each other, “What is he talking about?” 

Then Jesus goes into this prayer, which is addressed to God and written for us as something overheard by others. It is Jesus talking directly to God, in the hearing of his disciples. And in this prayer, the author, writing in the voice of Jesus, gives us clues to three important teachings. 

One: Jesus is not leading a revolution. This is deeply disappointing to some of his disciples and many of his followers. The clue is the word “eternal.” Everyone at that time, hearing the word “eternal,” would have thought of Rome. Rome was called the Eternal City, the capital of the eternal Empire. The disciples want Jesus to say his rule will be eternal or that they will be with him for all eternity, but he doesn’t say that. Instead, and this is the lesson for us, he defines eternal life in a very different way than most of us understand it. He says, “This is eternal life: to know You, the one true God.”  There is nothing time bound in that definition. If you want to follow Jesus, you will adopt an entirely different way of life, not based on any kind of empire. Eternal life doesn’t begin or end. Eternal life has nothing to do with time. Eternal life is to know God, and one way to know God is through Jesus, a human incarnation. 

Two: Jesus indicates that we are to be in the world without supporting the Empire. Jesus says to God even before he is crucified, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.” 

Three: Roman culture focused on the individual, and individuals lived in a spectrum of honor to shame. Certain actions or families or careers brought honor. Others brought shame. Jesus prays for God to protect the disciples so that “they may be one.” This is not an individual endeavor. We are to live in community. We do not live as individuals between honor and shame. We live for each other. The new command, that we love one another, requires a commitment to the common good.  

Jesus, in this lengthy prayer, repeats much of what he has said throughout his ministry but in the end emphasizes that nothing about our lives should remind people of “Empire.” Our touchstone, our foundation, our true calling is that we are to know God. And “know” in biblical terms which is not an intellectual exercise — it is a deep and intimate connection, which places relationships above all else. 

Obviously, we live in a modern-day Roman Empire. We Christians in this church and listening on-line are not the oppressed minority that the Christians of that time were. In fact, the policies and actions of our right-wing government are often done in the name of a version of Christianity that is unrecognizable to most of us. So we must indicate that although we live in the Empire and most of us are, at least for now, not in danger from the Empire, we don’t agree and we don’t cooperate. Loretto already gives out a lot of clues like this: The installation at the foot of the driveway which welcomes the immigrant; the sign waving every Wednesday; allowing people to give homilies that do not have to be approved ahead of time. But the biggest and most important clue that we live in an Empire, but we try to not be part of it is the way we care about each other. We are far from perfect in this, but we are good.  

Ultimately this wordy prayer gives us a clear and unequivocal direction. All that we do, all that we are, all that we want, must be to know God, and by extension, or by the consequence of knowing God, to know each other. Jesus does not talk about the end of an empire or the beginning of a different empire. He calls us to an entirely different frame of reference, which is to be in the world as people who know and love God and each other. This is our call, and we do our best to answer yes to that call. We answer yes to knowing God above all else and to put our relationships ahead of all other concerns. The last command at the Last Supper. Simple to say, a lifetime of practice to really do: “Love one another.”  Let us say yes again today.