REFLECTION FOR TUESDAY, 23RD MAY 2023

 ACTS 20:17-27

 Jn 17:1-11)

 “‘I Pray for Them’ (Jn 17:9)”

 One day, a man went to visit his friend who was blind, and it was at night. When the blind friend heard the steps coming into his room where he was, he switched on the light; and the man who went to visit him in very funny way he asked: “why do you put on the light yet you can’t see”? The blind friend switched off the light and started laughing at him for a long, and after a short while he switched on the light again. And then he said: “You’re quite right, I can’t see, but I did not put on the light for my own sake, I did it for you, because you needed it, since you are not blind like me”. And then he asked him: “how many times have you switch off the light for other people and denied them an opportunity to see light just because you yourself do not need it”?  

     Dear friends, in today’s Gospel, we heard about Jesus’ Farewell Prayer or High Priestly Prayer, which is a petition, a proclamation and revelation at the same time, where Jesus does not only pray for himself (Jn 17:1-5), but also for his disciples (Jn 17:6-19) and for the future believers or the coming Church (17:20-26). Jesus prays for others as a Mediator in a priestly way, between the Church and the Father, that is why he prays for the unity of the Church in an example of the unity and relationship between him and the Father. Therefore, you and I have a responsibility of praying not only for ourselves, but also for others and the entire Church.

     Jesus tells us about his glorification, as well which in the Gospel of John is grounded on suffering and death of Jesus. Likewise, St. Paul, in the First Reading shows that he rejoiced in sufferings like Christ, in proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord, and he served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials, because the plot of the Jews; and with all these challenges he did not stop to carry out the Gospel to many nations.

     Through this example, we, too, as Claretian Missionaries, our glorification should be rooted on the Cross of Jesus Christ, in the proclamation of the Gospel in our torments and sufferings as our Constitutions details: “A Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary… embraces sacrifices, smiles at slander, rejoices in all the torments and sorrows he suffers, and glories in the cross of Jesus Christ…” (CC no. 09).  

Antonio Nungulu Lohoca

II Year Theology