Wednesday
of the 7th Week of Easter
June 4, 2014 8:30am
In today’s gospel, Jesus uses the
word “consecrate” three times.
He prays to the Father: “Consecrate them in the truth.
“I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in
truth.”
The word “consecrate” has a very specific, narrow meaning, when we speak of
consecrating the bread and wine here at Mass.
It also has a more general,
broader meaning.
Here it means to dedicate, to set
aside something or someone.
That is the sense of the word in
this passage.
Jesus prays that we will be
consecrated, set aside, dedicated to the truth.
And the truth that he seems to
have in mind is the truth of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We are to be consecrated in the
truth of the Father:
that God is our heavenly parent,
and that God is the author of all life and all that is.
We are to be consecrated in the
truth of the Son:
that God’s own Son entered the
world as Jesus of Nazareth, that Jesus reveals the mystery of death and
resurrection and that he is the way to our heavenly home.
And we are to be consecrated in
the truth of the Holy Spirit:
that Jesus remains with us
through his Spirit, that he abides within us to strengthen, support, comfort,
enlighten and guide us.
If we pace this passage in the
context of Jesus’ total prayer here in the gospel of John, it seems that we are
to find our unity with him and with each other in this consecration to Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
We are not to let differences on
other lesser things divide us, either from him or from one another.
So, today as we consecrate the
bread and wine and then receive the body and blood of Jesus, may we find our
joy in this oneness with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that is both quite simple
and quite profound at the same time.
