Reflection on Jn 17:1

“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. God appointed the exact time for this path of suffering and completion of the plan of salvation. And this time came. Jesus says: “Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.” Jesus is the first-born Son, and we are second-born sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father if we have received Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. The time will come when we too shall glorify the Heavenly Father by our suffering and death.

During the prayer stop, when you will repeat these words, awaken to the reality of the hour of Jesus as well as your hour to come. Stop for a while, lift up your eyes to heaven and make an act of love for God, an act of total self-surrender.

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