Jesus concludes the Last Supper in prayer.  Now that His mission is about over and He is going to return to His Father, He reflects on His mission.  He has glorified His Father by carrying out His mission, which was to reveal His Father to men and women and thus give them eternal life.

Jesus’ work has borne fruit.  Through His words, His disciples have finally come to understand Jesus as the one sent by God—this is the key component of Christian faith in John’s gospel.  This does not mean their faith is perfect, or that they will never waver.  Therefore Jesus prays for them. He asks the Father to protect and care for them just as He has cared for them while He was with them.

The purpose of Jesus’ mission is to give us eternal life.  This life is not just the fact that we live forever; more importantly it is a new quality of life for the believer.  Eternal life is God’s own life.  He wants us to share this life because He loves us.  Jesus describes this life as “knowing” the Father and the Son.  This knowing is a personal, experimental union with God, an experience that is entered through the gift of faith when we surrender to God’s incomparable love.

God Bless.

Msgr. Powell