Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."

- John 17:12-19

In yesterday's reading, we read the continuation of Jesus' Farewell Discourse to His Apostles. Last week we began reading this discourse, and this week we continue. In yesterday's reading, Jesus prayed to the Father about His Apostles, and His own glorification to come. He will return to the Father -- but He speaks of the eternal life which He offers to those who abide in Him. They will come to know God. He said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." The Apostles have received the word which Jesus has given them as the Father has directed, and He has kept them in the Father's name. He prays, "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are."

"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." My study bible points out that the son of perdition is Judas Iscariot. Perdition here also means "destruction" - or to be completely cut-off from life, in a sense, from that which gives life. A note says, "Old Testament prophecy (Ps. 41:9; 109:2-13) alludes to Judas. Judas's actions also herald the 'falling away' that will occur in the last days (see 2 Thess. 2:3 where 'son of perdition' refers to the Antichrist)." One wonders -- why was this necessary? For myself only I can speak: Christ's life must mirror the things that we will also endure and live through in this world; and so, we know betrayal but He has been there before us. He bears all that we do - and He has been there first.

"But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." As Jesus is going to the Father, He prays for the Church He leaves behind, those who are "in His name." They have accepted God's word. But we have a great sense of just how much this communion means: they are no longer "of the world" but are in the world as a part of this communion with God, this holy Body that is 'set apart.' Christ prays, importantly, simply that this church be spared from the evil one. My study bible notes, "Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (3:1-5). yet their vocation is in the world, where they are protected by God against the evil one."

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." To sanctify, according to my study bible, is to "consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use." In other words, the fullness of this relationship is to somehow be set apart, to be sanctified -- and the way this happens is through truth, through the word of God. All the relationship of Father, Son, Spirit and the full Body of the Church comes in this way, and it is so strong that we as Christians are to be in the world but not of it. In other words, God empties His grace into us, and through all that we can experience of that grace: the Book of the Church, Tradition, our lives of prayer, liturgy and common worship, and all the myriad outpourings of this holiness we can possibly experience -- these are the things that set us apart in a, hopefully, ever-growing and deepening relationship.

But I think it's important that we consider what we are "set apart" for, and what it means to be set apart. Jesus empties all that He is, and the Father gives Him everything, so that He may consecrate those who remain in His word, His truth. I think this is a gift of grace we are bound to receive through an entire lifetime of prayer and communion, and all the forms that can take with us and within us in our lives. We are here to do a work in the world, just as He did a work in the world -- and to continue to receive and allow ourselves to be shaped by that word and that truth as we grow and abide in it. How will you do that? How is your life 'set apart' for the work of grace through you? Do you give it the time that it needs, the thought and prayer? Do you take this word seriously for yourself? Grace need not be a spectacular note or action the whole world will notice; it may simply work in your heart to teach you how to love, or to love better, in one situation or another that is a puzzle, or difficult. Let it work and know that you, too, can be "set apart" as part of Christ's prayer for those who seek to live in that word.