I'm always a little paranoid about things that aren't switches. You get the impression that there's a trap door or something, or someone's just going to turn a switch and push, and it all disappears. Thus far we have talked about what is sometimes called the first half of the Gospel, but of course there's much more than that. And you will notice that there is a kind of progressive development. John actually seems to be a little bit Western in this regard, logical, proceeding according to steps that are recognized as logical and progressive. And then in the second half of the Gospel he becomes more Eastern. And he begins to go around in circles, which is the contemplative mode. The Western rational mode is

[01:02]

1, 2, 3, A, B, C. The Eastern contemplative mode is to say it, and then to say it again with a little bit added, and then add some more, and you go around the subject. Lends itself very well to a mystical understanding of life, which goes more in a spiral circle that is ever deepening. or ascending, either way. And in this first, more or less, logical development, we have John taking the traditional steps of initiation, as I've said, trying to deepen them, to help us to see beyond the rituals, to see the faith life that must be there, and not to depend solely upon liturgical actions or prayerful actions or other rituals.

[02:06]

These are very important and he never denies their importance. But we must see that there are only a means towards something deeper. And then it goes into a more contemplative understanding, inviting us to move beyond Eucharist to enlightenment, not leaving Eucharist behind by any means, but to seeing that it is intended to lead us into enlightenment, where we begin to see with the eyes of God. We begin to see the world as God sees the world. And so we begin to... the meaning of life begins to open up to us. And then, of course, beyond that is life itself, but not a life as we normally understand it, which means not being dead. The ancient Hebrews used to say, they never thought you were alive or dead. They said, I'm 20% alive today. Tomorrow I'll be 80% alive.

[03:06]

Most of us are about 45% alive, I think. But not that kind of life. It means I'm feeling good and everything seems to be all right. No, it's a life that is deeper than that. It is a life that we share with God. peaceful, harmonious, not affected by all the comings and goings and the hubbub of the world around us. It becomes more and more peaceful, centered, and even laughs at the threat of death or the threat of illness. This is a great gift, of course. Most of us don't possess it to any great extent, but this is the invitation that Jesus loves us, therefore we as Lazarus do not need to be afraid. And then we come to the second half, often called the Book of Glory, and usually beginning with Chapter 13. As I've mentioned before, I think the Passion story, including the Farewell Discourse, begins already in Chapter 11, verse 45, 46, after the Lazarus story.

[04:20]

Because in verse 47 of chapter 11 we have talk of a conspiracy, as I mentioned, as we do in the Synoptics. And then in 12.1 and the following, we have the story of the anointing, which follows the conspiracy statement in Mark, in chapter 14. And then in chapter 12, verse 13, we have the Palm Sunday experience, the Hosanna of Jesus coming up to Jerusalem. And then in chapter 12, verse 20, which is where countrymen would begin the Passion story, we have a very strange statement or reference that says, Now among those who went up to worship at the festival Passover were some Greeks. I'm not quite sure who these Greeks are, but it's most likely they were Greek-speaking Jews, Jews from the Diaspora.

[05:25]

You know, of course, that the Jews in Alexandria, a large community of Jews in Alexandria, had forgotten their Hebrew to the point that in 100 or so BC, they translated the Old Testament into Greek. so that he could understand it, which became, of course, our subterragent. Probably Greek-speaking Jews, therefore, who were obviously interested in the feast, and they came to Philip. Now, Philip undoubtedly spoke Greek, because his name is Greek. Philippos means horse, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. There was a lot of foreign influence in Galilee. A lot of people spoke Greek there. And he said to them, he said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. They said to Philip, we'd like to have an appointment with Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew.

[06:27]

Andrew also has a Greek name. And Philip and Andrew went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, Again, the inappropriate response, he didn't say, oh, well, fine, tomorrow, 10 o'clock. He said, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. First time in the whole Gospel that Jesus says, not as he has been saying, the hour has not yet come, but not for the first time, the hour has come. He says again in chapter 17 verse 1, Father the hour has come, glorify your son. But this is the first time. And when the hour comes, we are entering into the climax of his ministry, we're entering into the passion story. And then he says something that is so profound, in many ways sums up everything that is meant by the passion.

[07:36]

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. When I was a farm boy, my father raised wheat. And I can remember going out, and of course there's plenty of opportunity to check that here, going out, and if you pull up the stalk of wheat, and if you're careful, gentle, you will find, right where the roots join the stalk, a little brown husk, which is all that is left of the original grain. All our instincts tell us to hold ourselves together, as I'm sure the grain of wheat that we're planting now When it begins, the moisture gets into it, it begins to swell.

[08:40]

Self-preservation. Hold yourself together. Be intact. Don't let yourself be broken apart in unselfish loving, concern for others. Unfortunately, unlike the wheat grain, we are able to achieve that. To stay intact. To resist the moisture. And to lose everything. The wisdom of Jesus is that one must be dissolved and scattered in love in order to become a new and much richer being. Because at the top of that stalk there are 40, 50 grains of wheat. So the original grain becomes part of a much richer harvest, a capsulized form of the wisdom of Jesus. It becomes almost like the theme for the passion story which will follow.

[09:43]

He goes on, those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Not hate it in the sense of despising it, but who are not too much attached to it. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor." This expresses the same challenge found in the Eucharist, an example of unselfish love and service, because one wishes to pass on the goodness that has been received. In 1227 already, Jesus says, my soul is trouble, which is a very brief reference to the agony in the garden. My soul is trouble. Many hears a voice from heaven, you know, it's all right.

[10:48]

And then in 1245, whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. Over and over again, in this Gospel, Jesus tells us that he came to reveal the Father, to reveal the love of the Father. Philip, whoever sees me, sees the Father. And therefore, when Jesus dies for us, in a sense it is the Father dying for us. finding a way to die, God finding a way to die for us, the ultimate expression of love. Then we come to the so-called farewell discourses. These discourses were given after the Last Supper. I've already mentioned the Last Supper and the foot washing. And then in chapter 13, the farewell discourses begin, 1331.

[11:52]

And they, of course, are placed in the Gospel before the Passion, and so they serve the purpose of a farewell. However, there is no doubt that these discourses, written after the Resurrection, are profoundly influenced by the Resurrection. And they become, therefore, reflections upon how the message of Jesus can be incorporated into the life of his followers. You know, Jesus died for us, but we live many, many years away from Jesus, the historical Jesus. And so it deals with the problem of how we today in any successive generation, how they can be brought into the experience of Jesus. And so it's really, in many ways, a commentary on the meaning of the passion before the passion happens, so that we can be prepared to see this meaning in the passion.

[13:08]

In the first discourse, Jesus notes that the end is near and leaves them with a kind of summary of all his teaching. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. If there is this love among you, all will know that you are my disciples. 13, 34 to 35. We have to be very careful here, and I owe this to Raymond Brown. This does not mean that we must simply try to imitate the loving of Jesus, something which is clearly beyond our ability. Rather, we are to accept the gift of Jesus' love, which will then work through us giving our love a power that it could never have by itself.

[14:21]

This is a gift that is offered to us. The loving of Jesus joins our loving, feeble, ineffective in many ways, but becomes powerful when it is joined with the loving of Jesus. So we must love as He loved. We must love with His love. And that can work wonders. And when we do that, when we do not place any obstacles to the flow of love, this new commandment gives us a power which was never known before in the world. That's why it's called new, because the love of God is present in Jesus as never before. It will be the only effective witness to the presence of Christ in our world. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have loved one for another.

[15:25]

Witnessing, evangelization. You know, the proportion of Christians in the human population is decreasing. The percentage is decreasing. But we have a lot of work to do. When I was in Jerusalem as a student, I couldn't help noticing in the Holy Sepulchre all the anger and competition, animosity between the Christians who occupy little sections of the Holy Sepulchre and the Muslims. The Muslims are there to keep order among the Christians. What a witness! In the Holy Sepulchre, One time somebody put a rod, moved the rug off into the other person's territory and they came out with the big shears and cut the rug off. The Latins secretly brought in a big organ and, boom, began to play it.

[16:34]

The Greeks were angry and the Armenians were angry and the Ethiopians were angry. The Ethiopians were up on the roof. They were trying to come lately. There were no Protestants in sight, of course. They were 1500 years too late. But we have so much work to do. How does the world recognize Christians because they love one another? I doubt it. Some of the worst wars in human history have been among Christians. By this all will know that you are my disciples. Not that you make the sign of the cross, not that you carry a card, I belong to this church, or a bracelet so as if I die, call a priest. No. They recognize us as Christians by our outstanding love for each other. That is the only truly effective witness, the only truly means of evangelization.

[17:39]

could not be clearer. As we become aware of this, we will understand in what sense then Jesus says in the beginning of chapter 14, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. Jesus is the only way. His teaching is the only truth. In fact, Raymond Brown maintains, I think accurately, this is not saying that he's three different things. No, he is the way because he teaches the truth. And this way leads to life. So he is the way to life because he gives us the wisdom of how to live. and that is unselfish behavior. It is through the world that creation came into being and it is only through the incarnate world that creation can return to God.

[18:50]

This is the only truth, the only reality. All other ways to happiness are illusory and this world truth leads to life, full life, vibrant and unending. This union of love with Jesus, this only way, will be made possible by the secret working of the paraclete. One of the primary considerations in these discourses is the role of the Spirit, whom he calls the paraclete. Paraclete is not an English word. It's a transliteration of the Greek parakletos. And it's a kind of a desperate solution. We can't find an adequate English word for parakletos, so then you just simply transliterate it. Parakletos comes from parakaleo, to call alongside.

[19:54]

A parakletos is one called to the side of another. And in the somewhat forensic or legal atmosphere of John's Gospel, this means one who is called to defend a person or to prosecute in favor of a person, the role of a prosecuting or defense attorney. And for that reason, the best English translation is advocate. In all, in most modern Romance languages, except English, The name of an attorney is Avocado, Avocado, Avoca, therefore an advocate, the best translation. He will work silently, this advocate sent by God, will work silently, deep in our hearts,

[21:01]

to convince us first of all of the Father's love for us and of our union with Jesus in that love. I will ask the Father and he will give you another to be your advocate, probably recognizing that Jesus is the first advocate as we see in the first letter of John. Another to be your advocate who will be with you forever the spirit of truth. So the first duty, the first role of the advocate is to give us that inner conviction, that inner confidence about our being loved by God, helping us to know deep inside our being, to be absolutely certain without any need to reflect upon it or to argue about it. that we are profoundly loved by God. This idea is reflected in Paul also, where he says, when we cry out, Abba, Father, it is the very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

[22:12]

The Spirit enables us to cry out, Abba, Father, to know that God is a good and loving parent that wants freedom for us, loves us through thick and thin, whether we are good or bad, a faithful parent, also ready to discipline if necessary, but basically loving. This work of the Paraclete Spirit is to forge a union of love between Jesus and the believer and the Father in the Holy Spirit. 1423. Anyone who loves me will heed what I say. Then my Father will love him and we will make our dwelling with him. We will abide with him. Menno. If we trust the words of Jesus and do our best to live according to them, we will be filled with a deep unshakable conviction about the Father's love for us, no matter what happens.

[23:29]

And this will be the bond that makes us one with Jesus and the Father. All this can happen now already and will be perfected in the end. Then it says in 1426, this Holy Spirit, this Paraclete, will teach you everything. The second thing the Spirit will do is to complete the teaching of Jesus or to carry on the teaching of Jesus or to adapt the teaching of Jesus to new circumstances. Jesus taught his disciples many things. that they are not able to understand much of what he said, for the essence of his teaching was revealed in the event of his death and resurrection. What the Holy Spirit will teach them concerning the tremendous implications of the dying and rising of their Savior is that this can be applied and transform the lives that they live.

[24:37]

The advocate is now explicitly identified as the Holy Spirit, who will continue and deepen the teaching of Jesus. In this way, the Spirit will defend the disciples against the insidious and attractive suggestion that human happiness can come from any other source other than unselfish loving. Such suggestions are deceitful and misleading, but they are so tempting that we would never be able to resist them without the aid of the Spirit. Accordingly, Jesus promises that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. When John says that the Spirit will explain and expand on the teaching of Jesus, We must not imagine that he means that the Spirit will simply add more pages to the treatise on Christology.

[25:41]

The most important contribution of the Spirit will be to show us how to experience Jesus in a world that is very different from the world of Jesus. Sometimes we say to ourselves, I wonder what Jesus would do if he were in my situation. Since it is almost impossible to imagine what a person living in 1st century Palestine would do in 20th century America, we are very likely to conclude that Jesus would probably do exactly what I have already planned to do. That's the great danger. I wonder what Jesus would do. I haven't heard anything. Well, I guess it must be this then. Such reasoning can be very dangerous. It is precisely at such time that the Spirit can come to our aid and translate, as it were, the teaching of Jesus into the idiom of our own world, how to be like Jesus in all the circumstances of life.

[26:55]

The implications of this become more clear when we consider several possible examples. It is obvious that Jesus never knew experientially what being an old man would be like. He died very young. Yet there are many, many old people who very much want to experience old age in accordance with the wisdom of Jesus. The Spirit will tell them how to do that. The Spirit makes that possible. And the same can be said of for living by the wisdom of Jesus as a rich person. He was never rich. Or as one in authority. He did not have an office of authority. Or the professor of scripture. Or the chaplist monk. It is not so obvious what being Christ-like would mean in all those different situations.

[28:04]

This is where the Spirit plays a critical role. I have a conferer who teaches in our college, and he has to face a class, half of whom are women, young women. He tells them the Holy Spirit will tell women how to be like Christ. That is easy for them, because obviously they're not masculine, and obviously Jesus was not feminine. In all such situations, far removed from the world of Jesus, the Spirit will tell us how to live by his wisdom. Moreover, it should be obvious that this recognition is not on the level of rational thought but on the deepest level of personal and mystical experience. The effect of this identity we're achieving in all aspects of our lives will be a profound confidence and a sense of power and peace.

[29:15]

The shorter must be what Jesus means when he continues, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid. The Spirit working within us, subtly but powerfully, gradually converts us, converts our mind, our thoughts, our hearts, into the mind and heart of Christ. And with that comes a profound peace, no matter how much turmoil there is in life. Peace be with you. I give you my peace. The world, those who do not know Jesus, may be able to provide occasionally a superficial sense of tranquility, a kind of vacation experience. But only knowing and loving Jesus can bring a deep, constant peace that stays with us even when we are facing the most difficult challenges of life.

[30:22]

A bond with Jesus is a bond of life. Chapter 15. I am the real vine. My father is the gardener. Every barren branch of me he cuts away, and every fruiting vine he prunes to make it more fruitful still. We are moving now into chapter 15. And I mentioned earlier, at the end of chapter 14, there is that strange statement, let's get up and go forward. A break in the discourse, apparently. But I think, I agree with Countryman, that to me, let us go even more deeply into this subject, which is exactly what he does. A more daring image of the mind stopped and divine. living by the same life, living by the same life-giving sap, almost like being on a blood transfusion.

[31:41]

You cut off the branch, it withers almost immediately. Life has been cut off. I am the vine. You are the branches. You cannot survive without sharing in my life. powerful image of flow of life from Jesus to us. And the Father is the vine dresser. The Father is the one who cares for the vineyard. And every barren branch of me He cuts away. And every fruiting vine He prunes to make it more fruitful still. If the vine does not produce, it is lopped off, thrown into the fire, unproductive. It may have green leaves on it, but there's no fruit.

[32:42]

Some of the most promising looking plants do not produce fruit. Then he prunes the living branches. He cuts them back. I worked with grapes a little bit one time, and I read the book, How to Prune Grapes, and the author said there's only one mistake, really, that you can make in pruning grapes, and that is to cut off too little. It's so difficult. You know, you have this wonderful vine going out there, and they say, don't allow more than three or four buds. Oh, but look at these other buds, look so nice. They look so promising. Well, it wouldn't hurt to have six. Well, make it eight. You see what I'm saying? It's so difficult to cut out something that looks so good.

[33:46]

That's why it says, be cruel. Absolutely cruel! Cut off everything but four fruiting buds. Otherwise, your grapes will be small. You don't have enough juice to make real big grapes. Pruning. There's a story that pruning was discovered through the ministry of St. Francis of Assisi. But he was wearing a donkey up to a Franciscan monastery, and he tethered the donkey to the post outside and went in. But the donkey was jerking around and got his tether loose and went over and ate most of the branches off this local vineyard, you know, patch. And they said, oh my God, you know, ruin those vineyards. They never had better grapes than that year. And so they learned from the jackass to prune the gates.

[34:52]

It's a great art and it's absolutely essential. What does pruning mean here? My father will prune the fruiting vines to make them more fruitful still. Of course, it is the suffering of the faithful. The divine suffers. The sap will run out when you prune it, especially if you're a little too late. And you can see it suffering. The pruning is the suffering that loving involves. The loving that brings fruitfulness in life. The loving that requires that I sacrifice my schedule. that as a good parent I give up my vacation so that the children can go to a better school. But it brings more fruit, not because it is suffering, but because it is loving. Loving always involves some suffering.

[35:56]

But we must never make the mistake of feeling sorry for people who suffer because they love. They found the secret of life. I think this loving, this preening, also involves trusting. Trusting is so difficult. And trusting is absolutely essential. And young people who, because of bad experiences in childhood, have learned to be distrustful have a great deal to overcome. They've got to be helped to overcome their inability to trust, because ultimately it's the only thing that'll get us through. And old people, they tell me, I don't know from experience, they tell me that old people have a hard time trusting the future, trusting God, trusting that it's going to be all right, trusting that God's timetable is the best. This is wonderfully productive.

[37:02]

And then the Holy Spirit plays another role in chapter 16, beginning of chapter 16, verse 8 and the following. Thus far, John has described the role of the Spirit Advocate in general terms. He is the Spirit of Truth who will explain more fully the message of Jesus and will stand with the disciples to defend them from their enemies In this final reference to the Spirit, John spells out in terse but clear language the way in which the Spirit will defend the message of Jesus by clarifying the differences between his disciples and the world that opposes them. Jesus has told the disciples that it is to their advantage that he go away, because he will then send the Advocate to them. Actually, of course, this is the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus is more present among us today than he ever was in Palestine.

[38:11]

So don't be thinking, wonder what I would do if I'd had the opportunity to live in Palestine in the first century. No, no, no. Jesus is more truly pleasant today than he ever was in the flesh. He's present in the Spirit, which is his Spirit, too, and the Spirit of the Father. Raymond Brown has a very strange statement one time. He says, The Spirit, the Paraclete, is Jesus present when Jesus is absent. Jesus has found a new way to be present. You are sad because I'm going away. I'm going away physically. But do not be sad. I will send the Paraclete. I will be with you again in a more real, more effective way, actually. And then he says, and when the Paraclete comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin, and about justice, and about judgment.

[39:21]

The best translation of this difficult word, which first meaning is to convince or to convict, but the best translation, and most modern translations have adopted this, is not to convince or convict but to prove wrong, to show us how wrong the world is in the three critical areas of what is sin, what is justice or goodness, the opposite of sin, and what is the judgment, the crisis that comes from deciding which is sin and which is justice. The counterpart, first of all, to sin is that quotation. He will prove the world wrong about sin, because they do not believe in me. The basic meaning of sin, therefore, is to reject the teaching of Jesus, to reject his teaching that challenges us to live unselfishly, or he couldn't have meant that, or that's impossible, or that's too difficult.

[40:44]

There must be another way. In particular, this means his teaching that the primary challenge of human life is unselfish behavior. Sin means to be egocentric, selfish, controlling, domineering, etc. To say that this is the way to fulfill one's human destiny and to achieve happiness is to live in sinful error, but very attractive error. The counterpart to sin is righteousness or justice or goodness. And Jesus said that the Spirit will prove the world wrong about the definition of goodness. The world says, goodness is what I like. About goodness, because I'm going to the Father and you will see me no longer. It is not easy to see how the departure of Jesus and his return to the Father would expose the nature of goodness as opposed to sinfulness.

[41:56]

However, when we see what his return to the Father means, the matter becomes clearer. Those who reject the teaching of Jesus must also reject his claim to be a true prophet bringing true revelation. That is, they must reject his claim to be from God and to speak in the name of God. They must conclude that he is fraudulent and that his message will die with him, that he is mistaken. The fact that he returns to his father in glory is, therefore, proves positive that he came from God and that his teaching is from God and represents the true meaning of justice or goodness in our lives. The resurrection and the ascension of Jesus proves that his message is trustworthy

[43:05]

If there were no resurrection, his message would die with him, and he would be understood as being, at most, a misguided idealist. It was, oh, very nice, what a nice man he was, but unfortunately mistaken. But the resurrection says, oh no, he was not mistaken. He was teaching the truth, and those who teach something else are mistaken. When Jesus says, you will see me no longer, it is not simply spelling out the consequences of his departure. It means that our journey leads us back to the Father too, so that our friends may, in fact, see us no longer when we die. But that is not so bad, because they will see us again if they're willing to make the same journey. I think when you get really old, I mean like really old, older than 76, you begin to see that most of your friends are now on the other side.

[44:18]

I remember my dad, he died in 82, and he would look up the obituaries in the paper. Oh, there goes another old friend of mine, Doug Bennett, old buddy of mine, gone. all of a sudden, most of your really good friends are over there. And as we become aware of this, we kind of find it a little easier to let go, to go and join them, going ahead of us, like Jesus has gone ahead of us. At least I think that's true. Chancellor says finally that the Spirit will prove the world wrong about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. The ruler or prince of this world is, of course, Satan or the devil, who is the great deceiver. The word diabolos in Greek, from which comes the Latin diabolos and our devil.

[45:25]

The word diabolos means one who deceives, the ultimate liar, the ultimate one who misleads others. When Jesus dies on the cross, it appears that the devil and his allies are right in judging him an imposter who misleads his followers. However, his glorious resurrection And his return to his father proves that the real deceiver is not Jesus, but Satan. That he and his allies are the ones who mislead people. The resurrection turns everything upside down. So that those who thought they had defeated Jesus are suddenly exposed as the ones who are really defeated and discredited. It is the role of the Advocate Spirit to convince the followers of Jesus that the resurrection has indeed happened and that their choice of loving service will be fully vindicated at the end.

[46:43]

The resurrection is a great mystery. One of our young priests was in a parish in Pittsburgh one time, and the pastor was one of those old-fashioned pastors who was, you know, successor to Jesus as knowing everything and whatever. And so they had a solemn high mass on Easter Sunday. And the pastor sat at the bench and the assistant was the deacon, he was supposed to preach. And so he began his sermon, my friends, the resurrection is a great mystery. And the pastor from his seat shouted out in a loud voice, it's not a mystery, it's a fact. Talk about preaching under difficult circumstances, with someone around there second-guessing you. Well, of course, it's both a mystery and a fact.

[47:49]

And even in the rectory afterwards, and he said, Father Pastor, one of the glorious mysteries is the resurrection. The resurrection can only be understood by faith. Only by faith. Only believers have access to the reality of the resurrection. Oh, it has effects in this life, but it belongs primarily to the other world, the transcendent world. It is a wonderful event on the threshold between time and eternity. And we see one side of it, but most of it is on the other side. Received only by faith. That is why it is so critical that biblical scholars have faith. Because without the resurrection, the whole gospel falls apart. It will convince the world about the truth and reality of the resurrection, which then tells us that the way of Jesus leads to glory, leads to happiness.

[48:59]

No other way does it. And if it leads to suffering and dying, it is because he loved. And if we love, we have no need to fear of the suffering and the dying. And then comes the final discourse of Jesus, Chapter 17, where he turns away from the disciples and speaks directly to the Father. However, he wants the disciples to hear what he says, He wants us to hear. Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. To glorify in the Bible, you know, is different. Very important biblical word, but our use of glory has nothing to do with the biblical meaning of glory.

[50:04]

We talk about old glory, flying in the wind, or the fireworks in 4th of July, glory hallelujah. Glory in the Bible is any sense perceptible manifestation of the presence of God. any manifestation, hearing, sight, smell, any manifestation of the presence of God. And the K'vod Yahweh, the glory of the Lord in the Old Testament, was that luminous cloud It was not a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night that went with the Israelites after the exodus. It was not two different clouds. It was a luminous cloud that glowed at night. Sense perceptible manifestation that God is with them. Father, glorify your Son. Show my glory. Show the presence of Divinity in me.

[51:04]

How? Not by resurrection. By dying. By dying. The glorification of Jesus in John's Gospel is the crucifixion. The resurrection is just the necessary consequence. It is being lifted up as a sign for all to see. See how much God loves you. Look upon this sign of my self-giving and know that this is what God, how God feels toward us. Crucifix ought to be one of the most consoling things that we can see because it shows us how much Jesus loved us. The Passion story is about how much Jesus loved, not about how much he suffered, how much he loved and therefore suffered. There's no particular merit in suffering as such. That's sad sadism.

[52:06]

There's merit in loving, out of which comes suffering. Kansas now knows that the climax of his career has arrived. He prays that the Father will lift him up for all to see in his definitive and perfect act of self-giving. In this way he will show that the Father loves us This revelation will glorify the Father, that is, show the Father's true nature. He prays then for all of us. Holy Father, wonderfully transcendent Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. Holy Father, hidden and so poorly known, and so poorly understood, I have come to reveal you, and I ask you to keep them in your name, equivalent to the heart of God.

[53:10]

Keep them in your heart, in your secret place of love, that they may be one as we are one, that they may become so free that they can afford to put aside destructive competition and achieve unity. Only free people, only free people can afford to be united, that they may be at home with us. The final words of the prayer of Jesus speak for themselves. I do not pray for these only, but also for those that are to believe in me through their word, that they all may be one. even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

[54:21]

If we read this chapter, this final, intense, deeply personal prayer of Jesus, we cannot be indifferent about the scandal of division in the Church of Christ. The scandal of division, which is a scandal and stumbling block to the rest of the world. We must be concerned about it. We must pray about it. We must do whatever we can. to overcome this terrible sign of disunity in the church that Jesus wants to be one. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. I want you to bring them to where I am to where I was as a child at the foundation of the world before my journey to the earth and back.

[55:32]

I want to bring them to my childhood home, show them my treasures. This unity he speaks about is not uniformity. We look for uniformity. Everybody wears the same habit, hopefully thinks the same way or has harmonious thoughts. No, unity that Scott is talking about is the unity that fosters diversity, the unity that comes from love. And love wants everybody to be his or her unique self. And so there'll be wonderful diversity, but a unity of love. If we do have Christian unity, I would contemplate Protestants coming into the Church, keeping most of their beautiful traditions. They don't have to be converted in the sense that they give up everything that they have had and become just like us.

[56:34]

They have all so beautiful and valid traditions that can be added to the true Church. Wonderful, wonderful diversity. O good Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you. And these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. final words of Jesus before his crucifixion in John's Gospel.

[57:16]

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