The scene in today’s gospel provides a view of Jesus shortly before His Ascension. Jesus is preparing to leave his disciples and addressing His words to God the Father. He is telling the Father and, in so doing, also telling the disciples and us that He has completed his purpose for taking on a human nature he talks of how he has given glory to the father and the father has glorified him. This circular discourse seems to be for the benefit of the apostles and for us more so than for God the Father. Jesus goes on to tell the Father that he prays for the ones God has given him and that he has been glorified in those the Father has given him. That includes us.
How can Jesus be glorified in us?
God is within each of us. This is a difficult concept to trust most of the time. We do not see ourselves as worthy of God’s presence. But, he made us, and what He makes is good and worthy of his love. He made each of us uniquely and he knows us better than we know ourselves. What a truly awesome idea that is to be so loved by our creator.
He has given each of us specific talents. It is through the use of those talents that we are able to return the glory he has given us through our creation. So the circular discourse with God the Father is applicable to us also. It makes me wonder how I can ever be so terribly foolish to take this circular relationship for granted, to ignore the love that is given totally freely, to fail to recognize the greatest fortune that anyone can have. However, the times I do recognize it are cherished times of joy.
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Since its inception in 1997, Online Ministries has been blessed to have myriad members of the Creighton University community offer their personal reflections on the daily scripture readings.
