I have finished the work which You have given Me to do

 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, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.  They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me."

- John 17:1-8

Yesterday we read that Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:  "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'  And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 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, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him."  With these words, Jesus begins what is frequently called the High Priestly Prayer, as it contained the basic elements of prayer which a priest offers to God when a sacrifice is about to be made.  My study bible says that these elements include:  glorification, remembrance of God's works, intercession on behalf of others, and a declaration of the offering itself -- which is Christ Himself (Glorify Your Son, verse 1).   Christ's words bear witness to His divinity and to His filial relationship with the Father.  The hour has come signifies that Christ is Lord over time, as has repeatedly been indicated throughout John's Gospel in several ways.   Glorify, my study bible explains, refers to the redemption of all creation that will be accomplished through the Cross and Resurrection -- the purpose for which Christ was sent into the world.  In this redemption, Father and Son are glorified.  In the Eastern Church, the Cross -- a sign of death -- is glorified as "life-giving" and the "weapon of peace."

"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."  My study bible says that the knowledge of the only true God is far more than intellectual understanding.  It is participation in God's divine life and in communion with God.  Therefore, my study bible explains, eternal life is an ongoing, loving knowledge of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit.

"I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."  My study bible notes that Christ's work can never be separated from who He is.  It claims that this verse is a statement each believer can make at the end of life, no matter how long or how short that life may be:  that our true work cannot be separated from who we are.  Christ is ready to go to that end that is the culmination and fulfillment of all "work" that is His, the glorification of Himself and the Father, revealed through the Crucifixion, death, and Resurrection.

"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.  They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me."  The men whom You have given Me are the apostles.  My study bible explains that they are the ones through whom God's word comes to us.  This handing down of God's word to successive generations is called apostolic tradition.  It cites Isaiah's prophesy that in the days of the Messiah, the knowledge of the Name of God would be revealed (Isaiah 52:6).  Your name:   In the times of the Old Testament, the phrase "the Name" was a reverent substitute for God's actual Name "Yahweh," which was too sacred to pronounce, as my study bible tells us.  It says that the fuller revelation of the Name was given to those who believe in Christ, as Christ manifested the Name not simply by declaring the Father, but by being the very presence of God and sharing the Name with Him.

Jesus says of His manifestation of the presence of the Father ("Your name") to the apostles:  "For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me."   We note how Jesus connects the words which You have given Me with the thread of the presence of God, and faith in Christ.  As Christ is Logos, the Word, so the words of the Father as given through Christ come to us in order to reveal the Father in Christ, and Christ's divinity.  The "living word" is therefore both the Person of Christ and also the Gospel message, given from the Father through the Son who was sent to us, and who manifested the life of the Father in the world for us.  And this is His work.  As my study bible points out, Christ's work and identity are inseparable from one another.  As faithful, we are to understand ourselves and the work of the holy in a similar light.  We dwell in the place where both our work in life and our identity as persons come together in faith.  That is to say, if we grow in our faith so we also grow in the true work which manifests, builds, and grows our identity in Christ.  Just as saints are dynamic individuals characterized by their love of Christ, so we each may grow in unique ways through this love, culminating as do the saints, in outstanding ways that are expressions of the Spirit at work in the world.  We carry His word, given from the Father, expressed through Christ, and made living and present through the Spirit -- and thus we grow to become "more ourselves."  This is the work of the faithful, as stated by Jesus in chapter 6 of John's Gospel:  "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (6:29).   In yesterday's reading, so central to this time of Lent into which we enter, we read the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (see above).  Let us note that the Pharisee did many good works, and he was satisfied with his life.  The work of God, the work of Christ and that of the saints, is not simply doing "good works" (especially done to be seen by others).  It is not nominally thinking up ways to do good.  The work of God is faith, active and ongoing, holding fast to the words we've been given and living those words through the love of God, a participation which requires dialogue in prayer.  What makes a person saintly is not a list of good deeds, but rather sharing deeply and growing in that love of the Father, Son, and Spirit and shared with us and for us.  It is, as Jesus said, faith.   And faith is a living, growing, dynamic instrument within ourselves, a way that we become even more truly "ourselves" through time as we grow in that faith and live it and enter more deeply into it and the places it takes us.  This faith, this work of God, cannot be defined only by external signs or rules or public opinion.  As Jesus says to Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).  Saints may be found in places no one ever heard of and no one would suspect.  Our deepest hearts are called to come to God and be given to God's work, and thereby we find ourselves and become more deeply ourselves.  This is the work of God, the work of the saints, and the work of Christ who manifests the Father -- and whose deepest revelation is yet to come in His Passion, death, and Resurrection, the events we celebrate as Easter.   Let us consider this unlikeliest image He calls glorification -- death on a cross -- and think about how little we may know of ourselves until we, too, walk in that faith and thus the work of God.