Sanctify them by Your truth

 "I pray for them.  I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are yours.  And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.  Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.  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.  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.  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 17:9-19

Yesterday we began to read what is called the High Priestly Prayer, which Jesus prayed at the Last Supper.  He 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."

 "I pray for them.  I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are yours.  And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them."  My study bible points out that, first, Christ prayed for Himself (see verses 1-5 from yesterday's reading, above).  Secondly, in today's reading, Christ prays for them, the apostles.  In tomorrow's reading, in the completion of the prayer, Jesus prays for those whom You have given Me; that is, all those who will come to believe in Him (verses 20-26).  Here, my study bible explains, the world is the portion of humanity which is in rebellion against God, those who prefer darkness to God's light.

"Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.  Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are."   The term Holy Father is echoes in the Eucharistic prayer of Didache 10:2 (the earliest teaching document of the Church):  "We give you thanks, Holy Father, for Your holy name which You have made to dwell in our hearts."  We can read the language of the name which echoes this High Priestly Prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper. 

"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."   The son of perdition ("destruction," related to a sense of total loss) is Judas Iscariot (6:70-71).  Old Testament prophecy, my study bible tells us, alludes to Judas (Psalm 41:9, 109:2-13; Zechariah 11:12-13), and Judas becomes a type for all who will fall away in the last days (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3, where "son of perdition" refers to the Antichrist).

"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."   My study bible says that inasmuch as Christ is from heaven, those who are joined to Him become like Him.  Therefore, it says, all believers attract the world's hatred.  The second-century Letter to Diognetus (6:3) states, "Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world."  Reborn in Christ, Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (3:1-5), my study bible says, but their vocation is in the world, where they are protected by God against the evil one.

"They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your 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, my study bible explains, is to consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for the use of God.  St. John Chrysostom interprets of this verse as follows:  "Make them holy through the gift of the Spirit and by correct doctrine."

What does it mean to be sanctified?  Jesus is setting Himself apart so that we, also, His followers, will understand that it is up to us to be sanctified by the truth.  These verses are said at the Last Supper, in this High Priestly Prayer, just before He goes to His arrest and subsequent death by crucifixion, and to His Resurrection.  Jesus speaks of His own sanctification, implying that the events which are to follow will forever set Him apart through the holiness that He is about to engage through His fidelity to the Father's will.  Jesus asks that, in turn, His followers also be sanctified in the Father's truth; that is, through participation and communion in the life of God.  He is asking for the Father's hand in creating the kingdom in this world, in which we may participate through faith, and be set apart through that entire field of truth which is this realm.  It is to make us different from "the world."  My study bible defines sanctify as "to consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for the use of God."  In Greek the root of this word is also the root of the word "saint."  It also means "holy."  What we encounter, then, in the sense in which Jesus is using it here in His High Priestly Prayer, is a sense in which we, as His followers, are also to be set apart for God's purposes.  We walk in our faith -- not in order to be made kings of this world and all that may imply -- but, in fact, to be like Him, to be set apart for a particular purpose.  Indeed, that purpose and that "set apart" quality is more likely to make us strange to the world rather than exalted pillars of the world.  It makes us different, but in a way that is most important.  The world, as defined by Christ here, is that life of the world that is ruled by the "prince of this world" -- the devil.  Supremely selfish, set against God and the places God calls all creatures to be, that sense of the "prince" of this world is one in which we see what ails the world:  manipulation, greed, contempt for truth, taking shortcuts in which the end justifies any means, delusion, false gods which come in seemingly endless forms, and all the things we place ahead of how we are to live our lives in this truth.   The contempt one may experience for an integrity in faith, and the results that produces in life, are simply still with us, as perhaps one may have encountered in life when standing up for something that your faith calls you to do.  It is, in fact, in my experience, quite remarkable how true the words in this Gospel remain, even living in nominally "Christian" societies and perhaps even among those who are nominally "faithful."  There are times when really living our faith means standing up to something and setting oneself apart.  Sometimes it means just moving apart from who or what we know is not conducive to our spiritual growth, the things that we have found hinder us in our journey closer to God.  At times there will be apparent in our lives changes that we need to make:  not spending so much time with people who have extremely negative things to say about us or others, not living around those whose pastime is to gossip, and perhaps more importantly, making time to be alone to pray.  In each of these circumstances, moving away from what hinders spiritual growth and the deeper practice of our faith means setting ourselves apart, even when we do so unobtrusively and without any fanfare.  We will find, frequently, that others either comment that we have changed, or possibly do not like the results of our choice.  Either way, being set apart is part of the journey of faith, even in "little ways" we think others might not notice.  While Christ's spectacular sacrifice -- once and for all of us -- may be something extraordinary, we should be prepared for the less-than-extraordinary changes we might need to make, and for the effects that can be surprising when they do tend to set us apart from what we already know that is "worldly."  As faith is an ongoing journey, let us understand that this is a deepening process, even surprising, as we can see from the Gospels.  How prepared are the disciples for what is to come to them?  And yet each -- with one exception -- will make that leap and follow, becoming themselves martyrs, outcasts, and those set apart for their faith.  How will we, in turn, follow?