CHAPTER XVII.

Christ's prayer for his disciples.

1. 'These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said: Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son 'may glorify thee.

2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give 'life everlasting to all whom thou hast given him.

3. And this is life everlasting, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

4. 'I have glorified thee upon the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do:

5. And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee 10before the world was.

Our Divine Lord is now on His way to Gethsemani and going to meet what will lead to His death through ignominies. He faces death like a champion; and the power over all flesh which He alludes to was singularly manifested in His followers. Peter and Paul went to death with joy and delight, whilst the man who sent them, had not courage enough to commit suicide when he was about to be taken prisoner in disgrace.

This secular idea of glory is the prelude of a celestial one.

Our Divine Lord prays in His Humanity. This is evident, for He gives Himself all His human titles. This Humanity did glorify the Divinity. For several thousand years the truth of

Revealed Religion was confined to Judea-now it goes out to the uttermost bounds of the earth.

The Humanity pleads for some manifestation of glory. Let the world know that the dust which forms a human body is not always to be a perishing thing. This prayer was granted at His Resurrection, when He appeared glorious and resplendent to His followers.

1These things.-That is to say the whole discourse which has been written and commented upon up to this point.

Lifting up His eyes.-S. Thomas and several commentators say that, from the example of Our Lord, a preacher ought to pray after his sermon for the success of his discourse.

The hour is come.-How often have we heard My hour is not yet come? It is come at last.

May glorify Thee.-This is like a contention of love, as if there was an effort to see who could glorify the other the most.

"Everlasting life.—Our Lord gives the life, the eternal decrees of Predestination-however, it may pick them out-decides who those are to whom the boon is to be granted.

Only true God.—The Arians make some work about only if they were better grammarians they would see that that adverb affected Jesus as well as His father. The Holy Ghost was only partially revealed at the time.

"I have glorified.—He says this for the sake of His Apostles. Loud prayers are chiefly for the edification of the hearers. Pious people pray in secret.

8The work. This He knew was done and His penultimate expression on the Cross was, Consummatum est.

"With thyself. He prayed for the elevation of His Humanity to the place it had earned.

10 Before the world was.-Let the glory of my Divinity shine now in the Humanity, without shame or mortification.

Jesus prays for Himself:

Ist. He gives His Father an

account.

2nd. He wants His Humanity glorified.

3rd. That to encourage His followers.

Our Humanity:

Ist. Is honoured by the Incarnation.

2nd. Is purified by following Our Lord.

3rd. Is sometimes above the angels in glory. B. V. M., etc.

6. "Manifestavi nomen tuum hominibus quos dedisti mihi de mundo. Tui erant, et mihi eos dedisti et sermonem tuum servaverunt.

7. "Nunc cognoverunt quia omnia quæ dedisti mihi abs te

sunt:

8. "Quia verba quæ dedisti mihi dedi eis; et ipsi acceperunt, et cognoverunt verè quia à te exivi, et crediderunt quia tu me misisti.

9. "Ego pro eis rogo. Non pro mundo rogo, sed pro his quos dedisti mihi, quia tui

sunt.

10. "Et mea omnia tua sunt, et tua mea sunt, et clarificatus sum in eis.

6. I have manifested 1thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me 2thou gavest them; and they have kept thy word.

7. Now they have known that all things which thou hast given me are from thee:

8. Because the words which thou gavest me I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known for certain that I came forth from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

9. I pray for them: "I pray not for the world, but for them "whom thou hast given me; because they are thine.

10. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and 'I am glorified in them.

The manner of Our Lord's prayer is very deep. He prays to His Father as a companion and confidential friend. We see an equality in the words of submission, and a mutual congratulation in the success of His work.

Many make capital out of those verses for the severe doctrine about predestination which it pleases Calvinists and semi-Calvinists to preach. They set forth as a dogma that God has predestined some to glory, and that these cannot be damned, no matter what they do. He has predestined others to hell, and these cannot be saved, no matter what they do.

This is simply a fiendish doctrine, subversive of all morals and virtues.

If we cannot reconcile difficulties, let us bow our heads, but not make the Almighty a destroyer of what He died to establish.

If He prays especially for His disciples, it is not because He excludes others. He prays for all men, and for His executioners

on the Cross. To pray that the good may be continued in holiness is one thing-to pray for the conversion of the wicked, another.

1Thy name.-The Jews knew Thee as a God, but I let them and all others know Thou art a Father as well.

Thou gavest them.-These men of whom Our Lord speaks were predestined to be Apostles. They were prepared for a great work, of the importance of which they themselves were unconscious.

3From Thee. They have come to understand the mutual union of excellence between Father and Son.

4The words.-These words mean actions, examples, instructions, promises everything which could be called a fact, or a thing.

For certain.-There is particular significance in this phrase. They may have doubted or wavered for a time in their faith, but now they are

sure.

"I pray not for the world. He does not pray for the world just now, but will afterwards. Is there not something like an exclusion from the friendship of heaven of those self-contented easy-going half-pagan professors of Christianity, who place respectability before sanctity, and never commit a sin big enough to make them sorry?

Whom thou hast given Me.-Past for the prophetic future.

8 All Mine are Thine.-The same equality again asserted.

I am glorified.—The prophetic future, rather than the past is verified in this expression. The past is not excluded.

11. "Et jàm non sum in mundo, et hi in mundo sunt, et ego ad te venio. Pater sancte, serva eos in nomine tuo quos dedisti mihi, ut sint unum sicut et nos.

12. "Cùm essem cum eis, ego servarem eos in nomine tuo. Quos dedisti mihi custodivi, et nemo ex eis periit, nisi filius perditionis, ut Scriptura implea

tur.

II. And now I am 1no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, 'keep them in thy name, whom thou hast given me, that they may be 'one, as we also are.

12. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me I have kept; and none of them hath perished, except the 'son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

Those who plead for even positive or negative reprobation, as the counterpoise to predestination quote Judas and Our Lord's sad admission about the necessity of fulfilling the Scripture.

We make a bold assertion, and it is this: that those who are lost have abused more graces than those who are saved have turned to profit. A man continuing in sin gets graces every day and laughs at them.

Judas was called as well as the others. Judas was treated as well as the others. Judas was treated better than the others. Judas received an office of trust and confidence. Our Lord did not correct him so sharply as He did Peter and others. He was tender and kind to him. He gradually let the enormity of his crime be manifested to him. He sent him off in a manner that he could understand how displeasing was his action. He performed miracles to convert him and gave him a kiss in the moment of his committing the most terrible sin on record. Who can say that Judas did not receive graces? Who can point any single Apostle who got more? Yet Judas was lost. Whose fault was it?

1No more in the world. The simple meaning of this is: I see that in a few hours I shall die on Calvary.

2These are in the world.-He knows what sort of worldlings and misery will be theirs when they are skulking from their own shadows in shame and wretchedness.