Over the next few weeks, we will meditate verse by verse on the 17th chapter of St. John, which is the supreme expression of the profound relationship between the Father and the Son.
“Jesus said, ‘Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you’ ” (Jn 17:1b).
Just as the Father wants to be glorified through the Son, so He Himself wants to glorify the Son:
“Now, Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world existed.” (Jn 17:5).
Jesus now asks the Father that His humanity may also be glorified with all the glory which He possessed from all eternity as God, so that men may recognise the One Who sent Him, the One in Whose Name He speaks and Whose works He performs, the One Whose glory He seeks…
And the Father? There is nothing that pleases Him more than to hear the prayer of His beloved Son, nothing that He desires more than that we men should recognise and follow His Son. All the glory we give to Jesus also honours the Father. All the obedience we render to the Son also glorifies the Father.
And the Son? He goes through the hour of His Passion to give His love to the end. In this dark hour an incommensurable light shines forth, because the Son is obedient to the Will of the Father even unto death.
And what about us men? We too, who have been included in this relationship of love between the Father and the Son, can glorify God with our lives. If we attribute all the good we do to the Father, Who gives us the grace for it; if we put all our efforts into making the Lord known and praised by men; if we put aside all our vanities and seek only to increase God’s glory, then He can glorify Himself in us and through us, and our whole life will serve for His greater glory.