In this verse, Jesus prays for the present and future apostles and disciples and for their internal unity. This unity is no legal unity or unity within a structure. The condition of true unity is that every disciple of Christ must first be in unity with the Father through sincere repentance and saving faith. Prayers for a kind of globalization of Christians in the spirit of New Age with the aim of establishing a unified structure is the exact opposite of what Jesus prayed for.

We must learn to fight in the spiritual battle. It is no good opening our hearts to impudent and unscrupulous people. It holds true: “Don’t throw your pearls to pigs!” We need the spirit of prophecy so that we may discern correctly. Spiritual battle is no showing off; it is a tough job. But what shall we fear? Illness, suffering or death – we need not fear it. God is with us always, and if we can suffer for the sake of Christ, we shall have glory in heaven. The goal is to save our souls and the souls of others – and that is the sense of mission. We must learn to fight with serpents, wolves and Pharisees just as Jesus did it. They said about Him that He was out of His mind, that He had a demon… When king Ahab attacked the prophet Elijah with the words: “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”, Elijah answered him immediately: “I have not troubled Israel, but you have!” Similarly, when someone attacks you with a lie, just smile and say: “Well said! It’s exactly what applies to you. Well said!” Do not be overtaken! When someone attacks you arrogantly, just pray in silence: “Lord, what is Your purpose in this situation?” Pray and God will show you His purposes.

There are people who have a charisma to preach. However, if a preacher himself lacks the sound spiritual foundation of union with Christ, his preaching may encourage people at the beginning but eventually turns out to be mere superficiality without the Spirit. It fails to change the hearts of people. But if you put the divine truths into practice and embody them in your life, your word is with power. When you then bear witness, the Spirit descends on people without you being aware of it. Be righteous people who live by faith. Be like Abraham, be men who give the first place to God. Because of Abraham, God gave His blessing to the whole generation. In these times, too, we need a community – the Church is a community. Where two or three are gathered together, there is power.

“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me,

that they may be one, even as We are one.”

Some translations of Jn 17:11 read “whom You have given Me”, referring to the disciples, instead of “which You have given Me”, referring to the name of the Father. We use the correct translation based on the Greek original, and we will use these words in our prayer stops.

The name which the Father has given to the Only-Begotten Son fully reveals the mystery of the divine name. God revealed the depth of the divine name to Moses only partially in the burning bush. It is contained in the name Yahweh, or I AM WHO I AM, or I AM HE WHO IS. It expresses that God is almighty, that He has always existed and that all that exists was given being by Him.

Jesus used the name I AM several times so as to reveal the truth and the mystery of Him being the Son of God who is one with the Father as to His divinity. He said: “I and the Father are one.” (Jn 10:30) And in another place: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” This evoked an instinctive emotional response of the Jews who considered it blasphemy and wanted to stone Him.

If we ask what eternal life is, Jesus gives us the answer: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Jesus speaks here about eternal life which is connected with the knowing of God the Father, and with the knowing of Jesus Christ. We may know God – Jesus Christ even now in prayer, in reading the Gospel, in suffering and especially when we renounce our own will and make an act of love by accepting the will of God by faith and in self-surrender. Jesus spoke about eternal life even before, when He said: The Father has given the Son authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as He has given Him.

During the prayer stops we can think particularly of the words: “know You”.

What accord has Christ with Belial? We can never say that Christianity and paganism are equal ways to salvation! Salvation is only in Jesus. If pagan ways led to salvation, Christ would not have come to our earth and died for our sins. But, as the Scripture says, He came and endured pain, suffering and humiliation to save us and to deliver us from darkness and from the slavery of the devil. Today the exact opposite is being proclaimed. This being the case, mission becomes pointless. It is not even possible to carry out any mission, nor are we allowed to say who we are because pagans, as the saying goes, would take offence. 20 years ago, an editor of a Catholic magazine in USA was prohibited from publishing an article about the conversion of a Buddhist because the editor-in-chief told him that such article dishonoured other religions. So if someone converts to Christianity, it reportedly offends pagans. And it was no atheistic magazine! What destructive manipulation of human minds!

We need to know the essence so that we may be witnesses in the place where we are. Everyone should ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be an evangelist, teacher or prophet at a particular place. An evangelist preaches the Gospel in power. A teacher interprets Scripture. A prophet is the one who sees and points out the essence of things. There is a so-called law of spiritual entropy. An example is the people of Israel. The Israelites came out of Egypt but then returned to their idols. As soon as Moses went up to the mountain, they made for themselves a metal bull calf. This is the picture of our old self: it is eager to bow before sin and demons, even to make sacrifices or observe fasts… For example, some Indian gurus are skin and bone, but not for the sake of Christ and for the salvation of their soul. They are stimulated by their pride and by demons to whom they opened. In contrast to them, we must be full of the Holy Spirit, we must be witnesses to Christ, we must have a sense of the essence. We shape our environment above all by the example of our life.

We must receive the Word of God as the Word of God, the simple truths of the Gospel of God as they are presented to us by Jesus. The apostles were no theologians. They were simple fishermen. But the whole world was saved through their preaching. Human pride and philosophizing is absurd. The Word of God is connected with mystery. Human reason must be conformed to the Word of God, then it can govern the will, and emotions come last. If we reverse the order and cast away the relationship with God founded on faith, everything in our life is turned upside down. This is the result of our pride. Many people have no experience of spiritual battle and of the cunning of human nature but they set norms and invent theories without ever trying them out in practice.

What is it in us!? Conscience, the voice of God, on the one hand and the poison of sin on the other. If people hear lies, they gladly believe in them. On the other hand, they keep questioning the truth. They even question the truths of our salvation – maybe it is true, maybe not… Our attitude must be unwavering: “Jesus said it and it is true! I won’t invent anything! He who believes will be saved; but he who does not believe will go to hell.” And what to say to those who speculate or to Jehovah’s Witnesses if they ask: “And what about hell? What is it like?” Say simply: “You’ll see for yourself when you are there! Don’t ask me; I’ve never been there and I don’t want to go there either!”

“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.”

Jesus closes His intimate words to the apostles with a prayer. He spoke about a deep mystery related to the Holy Spirit, about the life of the Triune God in us, about the promise that the Father will hear a prayer in the name of Jesus, about the greatest love which we can show for our friends when we lay down our life for them, and about other deep mysteries.

“Jesus spoke these words…” It concerns the words in chapters 13-16. “…lifted up His eyes to heaven…” Jesus thus sets an example to us. We must lift up our eyes to heaven too. We often look down or fix our eyes on vanity or even sin. Jesus said: “Father, the hour has come.” What hour? The hour of Jesus, the hour of His physical and mental suffering and of His death in disgrace on the cross.

One can live in a community which has received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who wants to guide us into all truth (“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth”) and yet one can become withdrawn and not let oneself be influenced by the community. Jesus says: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will do it! He will guide you into all truth!” And what are the fundamental and full truths of the Gospel? It is above all the truth that we are sinners enslaved by the old self, flesh, world and devil. People do not want to hear it and think they are free.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The poison of original sin is in every one of us. This is in us and the devil laughs. Unless we fight against sin, pride and lusts for all our life, we can easily lapse into heresy. If we believe ourselves, we destroy ourselves. That is the poison in us and we have to fight with it continuously because it leads us to self-destruction. We must carry it as a cross, not unite with it but resist it. “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus!”

Jesus says: “Whoever desires to save his life (soul) will lose it, but whoever loses his life (soul) will save it.”

Again, Jesus says these words on the evening before His death. It is good to read at least 5 verses before and 5 verses after it so as to perceive the connection. But it is best to read again the whole chapter 16 and 17. Verse 23 is the response to the preceding words of the apostles who confessed their faith in the divine mission of Christ. Jesus points out the weakness of their faith. Light affliction will come and they will be scattered. That night the apostles were scattered and Peter who was a hero at the beginning and followed Jesus gave way to fear for his life in the end and denied Christ amid pressure and hatred towards Christ. But he repented thereafter. Jesus knew the weakness of the apostles and He knows our weakness too. In a crisis, our old nature – i.e. our soul infected by original sin – gives way to fear and does not believe in Christ and His Word.

Life is so short! We know neither the day nor the hour. And yet we do not believe in God’s Word, we do not reflect on it but rather we think about foolish things, we get angry… Let us look at the cemetery. How many people lie there who also were angry, suffered heart failure, pursued career, wealth… But this all is passing away. Our goal must be life, eternal life, which we are given by God. Therefore we need to be prepared at all times for the moment when we shall depart this life. We must be in Christ even here on earth and carry all our crosses and burdens with a living faith. Jesus says: “Deny yourself and take up your cross; do not be in depression, take up your cross and follow Me – Jesus.” How very needful it is to follow Him! It is an everyday way of the cross. Lord, what is my cross? How should I deny myself? In little things – you thus get to the level where the power of sin does not work, you get out of your nature and enter into communion with Jesus. The kingdom of God is in us and corrupt nature is in us too.

Whenever a problem arises, our old self automatically begins to complain against God, swear or be distressed. Learn one thing: Deny yourself and give thanks. “Lord, thank You for this cross – for getting a scolding again, for missing my bus…” You only need to give thanks and God will enlighten you: “Look, such bad thing would have happened to you there, it could have such and such consequences…” And you suddenly realize numbers of other things related to it. But if you revolt against God and indulge in self-pity, you actually throw away your cross. If someone rebukes us, the automatic reaction is hatred and self-pity. We must deny it and our eyes will be opened. We must take up our cross – our concrete pain – and follow Jesus. Where to? To Calvary and then to glorious resurrection. Where is Jesus? In glory. There is our homeland. Here we are mere pilgrims.