Daily Reflection – 5/15/2024
Sacred Scripture
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them, I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” (John 17:11-19)
Reflection
Every one of us, at some point in their life, has periods of self-doubt. With some, it is even worse because they carry scars from an earlier period of their lives. It may have been an uncaring parent, or a spouse that violated their marriage vows or a family member who hurt us physically or emotionally.
Whatever hurt has been inflicted on us has lowered our self-esteem. It has made us feel less worthy. It may have been caused by an addiction which seeks to dull the pain.
At those times of lowered self-worth that we need to hold fast to the words of Jesus Christ. The words that not only tell us of how much we mean to Jesus Christ but words that consecrate us to Him and to His father.
On the eve of his sacrifice on the cross and in the presence of his disciples, Jesus made his high priestly prayer: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that they may be one as we are one”. Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples and for all who would believe in him. Jesus’ prayer for his people is that we be united with God the Father in his Son and through his Holy Spirit and be joined together, in unity with all who are members of Christ’s body.
Those words may not resonate in you but there is still another part of those words that should. Those words were spoken by the Son who was born from love. God, the Father, begat His Son to choose us and to save us. We, in turn, are asked to reflect that love.
It’s all about love.
His father sent him on a mission of love to free us from slavery to sin. His father sent him to forge the love of the father into our very DNA. We are born of love because each of us is a child of God. By freeing us from the evil around us, we become a vital link in that chain of love.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890) wrote: “God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between people. He has not created me for nothing. Therefore, I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away.”
That is EXACTLY what we are.
No matter where you are right this minute. At the best part of your life or in the darkest of moments, hold onto that. You are part of the mission of God. Do I dare repeat that?
You are part of the mission of God. You and I are forged as links in a chain of love. You and I are together on a mission – to bring His word alive and in so doing, we create additional links in a chain.
You mean everything to God. Take His love and let it be your fuel on the journey of life. Never, ever forget His love for you. Never ever forget that you are a link in His chain of love.
Prayer of The Day
“Jesus, I am humbled by your commitment to me. Come, Lord, and fill my heart. Help me to consecrate my life to you.”
Daily Note
Jesus is suggesting in the gospel reading that the essence of eternal life will consist in being in a loving relationship with God and with Jesus. Eternal life consists in a communion of love between us and God and God’s Son, a communion in which we will experience God’s love to the full and respond to that love in full. All of the New Testament strongly suggests that this experience of loving communion with God will not be a merely private experience. Rather, our communion with God in love will at the same time be a communion with others.