A reading from the Gospel according to John 17:1-11A

1 Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
2 just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
3 Now this is eternal life: That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
4 I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
5 Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
6 “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they have known, that all things which you have given me, are from you
8 Because the words which you gave me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from you, and they have believed that you did send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom you have given me: because they are yours,
10 And all my things are yours, and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

Reflection: John 17:1-11A

In the gospel reading above, Jesus prays for His Apostles whom He has chosen but here, He considers them as gifts from the Father. These chosen people are in the world but they no longer belong to the world but to the Father. He taught them what they needed to learn and has given them their mission. He knew what difficulties they were to encounter as they go about to do their mission. So Jesus Himself entrusted them to God the Father almighty.

In His prayer, Jesus clearly revealed who He is – that He was with the Father before the world began, that He came to the world out of obedience to God’s will and that He is going back to His heavenly home after finishing the mission He was given to do.

In this prayer, Jesus also revealed to us how to give glory to God – that is to know Him and to accomplish the work we have been tasked to do. He left us His commands such as loving one another and going to all nations to preach the gospel. Not only that, He showed us the example of laying our lives for sake of the gospel. Let us recall that when he entered Jerusalem, He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” (John 12:23) and when Judas left to carry out the betrayal, He said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him” (John 13:31). When He was already hanging on the cross, He exclaimed, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) In other words, God is glorified through obedience.

Just as Jesus prayed for His apostles, let us also pray for one another that we may all give glory to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit by faithfully obeying the commandments of Jesus.

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The glory of God is a recurring topic in the gospels. In fact, it is the most important message of Jesus. In the Gospel of John most especially, the words and actions of Jesus revolves around giving glory to God the Father. Right from the start, John speaks thus, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The book of Hebrews tells us that the Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God (Hebrews 1:3).

There are five ways by which God is glorified through Jesus which we could adopt so that we too can give glory to God in our life.

1) God is glorified in revelation. Jesus endeavored to show us the Father. That is why when Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God and Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, He is in fact telling us that God is glorified when we come to Know Him and have relationship with Him.

2) God is glorified in obedience. The gospel above tells us that Jesus Himself glorified God by “accomplishing the work that you gave me to do”. By exclaiming that “it is finished” while hanging on the cross, Jesus has done the will of His Father no matter how painful it is. Thus, we too can give glory to God by being obedient to His will. Indeed, nothing gives more joy to a parent than an obedient child.

3) God is glorified through the display of His power. Let us recall that the miracles of Jesus were all meant to glorify God. Jesus Himself explained that the healing of the blind man in John 9 and the death and coming back to life of Lazarus happened for the glory of God. Therefore, whenever we are in a difficult situation, let us pray that the glory of God be revealed.

4) God is glorified in prayer. The gospel reading above is the Lord’s Prayer. In it, the word glory or glorify appears several times. It is God’s glory that His children always connect with Him through prayer. So let us always pray thus, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”.

5) God is glorified when His children are alive. Saint Ireneaus said that “The glory of God is man fully alive”. Jesus Himself said that He came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Just as a parent is happy upon seeing the happiness of his children, God is glorified when His children are healthy, happy and successful. So let us endeavor to be more active in life rather than be walking dead. More importantly, let us give glory to God whether we eat or drink or whatever we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).