I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one

 

 "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.  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 17:9–19 

 

Yesterday we began reading what is known as Christ's High Priestly Prayer, which He prayed at the termination of the Last Supper, just prior to going to His arrest.  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 Christ first prayed for Himself (verses 1-5), and second for them, the apostles (verses 6-19).   Only then He begins to pray for those whom You have given Me -- that is, all those who will come to believe in Him (verses 20-26).  Here the world is the way that He references the portion of humanity in rebellion against God; that is, in the words of my study Bible, those who prefer darkness to His light (John 3:19).  

 

 "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. "  My study Bible notes that Holy Father is echoed in the eucharistic prayer of Didache 10:2, which reads, "We give you thanks, Holy Father, for Your holy name which You have made to dwell in our hearts."   The Didache is the earliest known Christian teaching document, said to be the teaching of the apostles.  

 

"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."  The son of perdition (perdition meaning "destruction") is Judas Iscariot (John 6:70-71).  Old Testament prophecy also alludes to Judas (Psalm 41:9, 109:2-13; Zechariah 11:12-13), and Judas become a type for all who will fall away in the last days.  See 2 Thessalonians 2:3, in which "son of perdition" refers to the Antichrist.

 

 "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."  My study Bible notes that, inasmuch as Christ is from heaven, so those who are joined to Him become like Him.  So, therefore, all believers attract the world's hatred.  The Letter to Diognetus (6:3), written in the second century, states, "Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world."  My study Bible comments that, reborn in Christ, Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (John 3:1-5), but 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 is to consecrate, to make holy.  It also means to make separate and set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use.  My study Bible quotes St. John Chrysostom's interpretation of Christ's words here:  "Make them holy through the gift of the Spirit and by correct doctrine."

 

Jesus prays to the Father regarding His apostles, "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."   Perhaps a century later, in the Letter to Diognetus (cited by my study Bible; see above), a faithful Christian explains to a pagan of the time, "In a word, what the soul is in a body, this the Christians are in the world. The soul is spread through all the members of the body, and Christians through the diverse cities of the world. The soul hath its abode in the body, and yet it is not of the body. So Christians have their abode in the world, and yet they are not of the world.  The soul which is invisible is guarded in the body which is visible: so Christians are recognized as being in the world, and yet their religion remains invisible."  We Christians remain in this "body" as explained by the letter-writer, whom we now do not know.  But it is St. Paul who writes of the great communion of the saints, which helps us to further understand this "body" that truly makes up the Church.  In chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews, St. Paul cites faithful believers from the Old Testament.  He enters this subject with these words that speak of things visible and invisible, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:3), and the rest of the chapter names many examples of the faithful.  In chapter 12 he concludes, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).  St. Paul's "great cloud of witnesses" remains the body of the Church, as referenced by the writer of the letter to Diognetus.  So we still form this body in the world, but not of it.  This is the body of those who continue in faith to the word given to Christ, and passed on to us through the apostles and their successors.  But how many of us today understand this "invisible" nature of the body of Christ, even as we remain very much in the world through the design of our Lord, as He indicates in His prayer?  Do we still have our important sense of being in the world, but not of it?  That we are a part of an invisible Kingdom, which doesn't work in the same ways the world does?  This understanding, so essential to Christ as evident in His prayer, and to the early Church in accordance with the history and documents we know, remains something intrinsic to our faith.  For we must remember Christ's words in prayer to the Father, He does not ask that His faithful followers be taken out of the world, but that God the Father keep them from the evil one.  Do we still have a sense of our difference from "the world?"  Do we understand our need to be kept "from the evil one?"  Let us ponder Christ's words, for these remain an essential part of who we are and what we step into when we enter into His faith, and seek to grow in His kingdom.  This perspective doesn't limit us, but it is the light by which we see and find our way in the world, His way.

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

 

 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 as 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."  Jesus' prayer (verses 1-26) is often called the High Priestly Prayer.  This is because it contains the basic elements of prayer a priest will offer to God when a sacrifice is about to be made:  glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God's works (verses 2, 6-8, 22-23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (John 17:1, 5).  My study Bible explains that His words, the hour has come, signifies that Christ is Lord over time.  A hymn declares that Christ "voluntarily willed to ascend the Cross in the flesh."  To glorify refers to the redemption of all creation which will be accomplished through the Cross and Resurrection.  This, my study Bible says, was the purpose for which Christ was sent into the world.  In this redemption, the Father and the Son are glorified.  This is why the Cross, which is a sign of death, is glorified in the Church 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 comments 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 Him.  So, therefore, eternal life is an ongoing, loving knowledge of God in Christ and in 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.   This verse is a statement every believer can make at the end of life, no matter how long or short that life may be.  

 

  "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 Christ's apostles.  According to my study Bible, 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 was prophesied by Isaiah that in the days of the Messiah, the knowledge of the Name of God would be revealed (Isaiah 52:6).  Your name:  In Old Testament times, the phrase "the Name" was reverently used as a substitute for God's actual name, "Yahweh," which was too sacred to pronounce.  The fuller revelation of the Name, my study Bible explains, was given to those who believe in Christ, for Christ manifested the Name not only by declaring the Father, but by being the very presence of God and sharing the Name with Him.  

 

Jesus begins His prayer this way:  "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."  It seems quite remarkable that we should be given to understand -- through the words of this prayer, heard by the apostles, and passed on for our knowledge -- that God and God's Son are glorified by giving eternal life to all those whom the Father has given to the Son.  In other words, Christ's prayer reveals that God the Father and God the Son -- neither in need of further glory -- are glorified through giving to us the gift of eternal life.  Following in this sense, it would seem to indicate that glory for God is magnified through graciousness, through the granting of this unsurpassable gift of eternal life for God's creatures.  Those who are given to Christ are those who come in faith.  That is, those like St. Peter, who upon His confession that Jesus is the Christ, was told by Jesus, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven"  (see Matthew 16:16-18).  It seems to indicate that the grand plan of salvation is, in fact, the grand plan of creation in the first place.  For we fallible creatures are capable of becoming perfected through faith and by the grace of God.  If God's glory is indeed magnified and made manifest through the granting of such a gift of eternal life to we who were created as finite and imperfect, then we live in a world that is a creation of the one true God who above all is gracious and loving.  This is a God who makes all things possible, for whom the gift of eternal life is a goal for His finite creatures and seemingly has been all along.  To be gracious, and magnanimous, to give impossibly expansive and ineffable gifts such as the life we're offered is what it means for our glorious God to be further glorified.  Does it not follow that, if for God Himself it is glory to extend what is infinite to the finite, then for we finite creatures to emulate glory is simply to be gracious?  We become glorious not by collecting but by giving, if we are to be "like" our God.  The very concept of what it is to be gracious becomes, through Christ, a transfiguring understanding extended to kings and nobles of what it means to have glory.  Let us extend our own capacity for grace through the gifts of the infinite God for His finite creatures.  For God's purposes have a meaning and a fullness to attain, and that glory is apparently attained in us.

 

 

 

 

Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are

 

 "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.  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 17:9-19 

 

In yesterday's reading, we were given what is called Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, which He prayed to the Father before His trial and Crucifixion.  Jesus 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 notes that Christ first prayed for Himself (verses 1-5) and secondly, for them, the apostles (verses 6-19).  Only then does He pray for those whom You have given Me -- that is, all who will come to believe in Him (verses 20-26).  Here, my study Bible says, the world is the portion of humanity 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."  Holy Father is echoed in the eucharistic prayer of Didache 10:2 (the Didache the earliest known Christian teaching document):  "We give you thanks, Holy Father, for Your holy name which You have made to dwell in our hearts."  

"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") is Judas Iscariot (John 6:70-71).  Old Testament prophesy alludes to Judas, my study Bible says (Psalms 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.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."  As Christ is from heaven, my study Bible explains, so those who are joined to Him become like Him.  Therefore, believers attract the world's hatred.  In the second-century Letter to Diognetus (6:3), it is stated, "Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world."  To be reborn in Christ is to have citizenship in the Kingdom of God (John 3:1-5), yet the vocation disciples 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."  My study Bible explains that to sanctify is to consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sphere of the sacred for God's use.  According to St. John Chrysostom, Christ is saying, "Make them holy through the gifts of the Spirit and by correct doctrine."

Jesus makes a distinction in His prayer between those who are His and the world.  My study Bible explains that "the world" is the portion of humanity in rebellion against God, those who prefer darkness to God's light.  He indicates that those who come to Him, those who hear His voice, are those whom the Father first has given to Christ ("those whom You have given Me").  As we have seen consistently in John's Gospel, all things begin with the Father, including the identity of the Son, and we who hear the Son's voice.  It is the Father through whom all things begin, including our capacity to hear Christ's voice, the word of truth (Matthew 16:17).   What is extremely notable in this section of the High Priestly Prayer is Christ's clear distinction between "the world" and His followers, the faithful.  He begins by saying to God that He does not pray for the world, but for those whom the Father has given to Him, for they are the Father's.  Jesus 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."  Let us note that what is of greatest importance to Christ is simply that His followers remain faithful; that they remain true to the Father and true to the word which Christ has taught.   To have been kept in the Father's name is to have been kept and held within the Kingdom, the realm of the Holy Spirit, this reality to which we respond which is planted in our hearts, for this is how the Name of God works.  It is a sense in which we belong to God, we are stamped in our hearts with God's Name.  It's important, essential, to remember that what Jesus prays for is that we remain in this condition of belonging to God.  He is not praying that we always get our wish, that we live in a mansion and have every worldly success we can think of.  Far from it.  What Christ prays for is that we are kept by God and not lost, and that we are kept from "the evil one."  That is, we are not lost to the ways of the one who opposes God, whether that be a spiritual power or a worldly manifestation of spiritual darkness, which is in opposition to God.  It is this life and this safety that Christ prays for, for us.  He prays that we not become "of the world" in the sense that we give up God's ways for the ways we see in the world that are in opposition to God.   Jesus says, "Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth."  We must remain within God's word and God's truth; and we know God's ways from the Scripture, from the teachings of Jesus.  He says, "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."   Jesus will remain loyal within God's truth and God's way for Him all the way to the Cross, putting everything on the line, so that He might be sanctified in order to sanctify us in God's truth.  It is we who are the beneficiaries of this prayer, we who must take it seriously that we are in the world and not of it.  And this is Christ's joy, that we remain in this place of truth and sanctification, even when the world would demand a different way, of manipulation and lies, coercion in all its forms, expedience, and serving all manner of forms of selfishness over our call from God.  Let us consider the ways we need to keep alert to the temptations of the world, so that Christ keeps us for Himself, and we may have His joy fulfilled in ourselves.

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

 

 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 

 

In preparing us for Lent, the lectionary yesterday gave us the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:   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 as 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."  Our reading today begins what is often called the High Priestly Prayer.   The lectionary cycle gives us this prayer in its entirety over the next three days, as we read chapter 17 of John's Gospel.  This is Christ's prayer before the time of betrayal, when He knows He will be seized and eventually crucified.  It is called the High Priestly Prayer because it contains the basic elements of prayer that a priest offers to God when a sacrifice is about to be made, my study Bible explains:  glorification (verses 3-5, 25), remembrance of God's works (verses 2, 6-8, 22-23), intercession on behalf of others (verses 9, 11, 15, 20-21, 24), and a declaration of the offering itself (verses 1, 5).  In the first section of this prayer (verses 1-13), Christ's words bear witness to His divinity and His filial relationship with the Father.  The hour has come signifies that Christ is Lord over time, my study Bible says.  It cites the words of an Orthodox hymn:  "He voluntarily willed to ascend the Cross in the flesh."  Glorify is a reference 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.  It is in this redemption that the Father and Son are glorified.  Hence, the Cross, a sign of death in this most gruesome form of crucifixion, is glorified in the Church 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 comments 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."  Christ's work is not separate from who He is.   My study Bible says that Jesus' statement, "I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do," is one which each believer can make at the end of life, no matter how long or short one's life might be.   

"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 is a reference to the apostles.  My study Bible reminds us 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.  Isaiah prophesied that in the days of the Messiah, the knowledge of the Name of God would be revealed (Isaiah 52:6).  Your name:  In the Old Testament times, the phrase "the Name" was reverently used as a substitute for God's actual Name "Yahweh," which was too sacred to pronounce.  The fuller revelation of the Name was given to those who believe in Christ, as Christ manifested the Name not only by declaring the Father, but by being the very presence of God and sharing the Name with Him.  

I'm reading an interesting book (The Religion of the Apostles) in which the use of the Name in Old Testament Scriptures is gone into with some detail.  Essentially, it says, we can think of this title for God as being used to indicate a Person, but one that is distinct from the first and second hypostases (or Persons; that is, those whom we call the Father and the Son) in the Godhead.  The Name is associated with the Third Person, the Holy Spirit.  For example, we read that the Angel of the Lord was given by God to Moses, and Moses taught that any rebellion against the Angel would not be forgiven, as Yahweh's Name was placed in the Angel.  "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him" (Exodus 23:20-21).  This sounds very similar to Christ's teaching that all manner of sin may be forgiven, but He explicitly puts into a different category blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31).  Of course, as Christians we hasten to add that the sin that remains unforgiven is the one that is not repented.  But for the consideration of today's passage, let us think about what it means for us that Christ says He has manifested God's name to His apostles, the ones whom the Father Himself has given to Christ out of the world.  Especially in the ancient world, a name was a powerful representation of a person; indeed, when we speak of kings or emperors, or anyone using a personal seal, a name conferred the presence of the person (and therefore the stamp made something the property and extension of that person).  Therefore, for Christ to manifest God's Name is for Him to present to the world the presence of God, but also this Name is manifest through the words which God gave to Christ, and upon those who keep those words.  The Name functions, in this sense, in the way the Holy Spirit works; at once God and also the extension of God's action into the world.  Therefore this Name, as it was planted in the Angel given for guidance to Moses, may also, through Christ, be implanted in us.  And there we come to Lent, which is essentially a time for the renewal of our Baptism.  In his first Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul asks, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" and, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  So when we consider the traditional practices of Lent, with its focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, what we see is a sense in which those practices help us to come to a clearer reception of that Name that is planted within us at our Baptism, and deeper manifestation of that Name through living our faithfulness.  Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving -- as well as special worship services during Lent -- are forms of self-emptying, self-giving.  What we do is to make an attempt to get our own egos out of the way, so to speak, and make more room for God.  Like David's penitential Psalm 51, which works as an archetypal form of confession for all of us, we are effectively asking of God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit."  Let us also be good bearers of His Name into the world, by keeping the word which Christ has given us, and keeping or restoring clean hearts at this time of Lent, so that our spirits are renewed and upheld in the joy of God's salvation.