We continue to meditate in detail on the 17th chapter of John, which is an eminent expression of the profound relationship between the Father and the Son.
Raising His eyes to heaven, Jesus said to His Father:
“I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (Jn 17:6).
It is the Son of God who reveals the Name of the Father to us, who makes it known to us and shows us His goodness, for “no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt 11:27b).
This is the fire that burns in the Heart of Jesus; this is His driving force, which moves Him at all times and in all places, and which sustains Him even in the most bitter hours: the Father has entrusted men to Him.
Our Father could not have placed his sheep in better hands than under the care of his beloved Son, the Good Shepherd, who gives His life for them (Jn 10:11). Indeed, they are His children, whom He called to life so that they might share in the fullness of His love; they are His children, whom He surrounds with the fullness of His love. They are His children, who are to return to the way after having gone astray and who should live as His children. They are His children, who are to know, honour and love their Father in heaven.
Who else could the Father have sent to rescue them from the night of sin and ignorance?
Only Him, who knows the Father as He truly is;
Only Him, who acts in the fullness of His love;
Only Him, who knows how to deal according to the Father’s Will with the treasure entrusted to Him;
Only Him, who remains faithful to His mission until death;
Only Him, in whom the Father Himself comes to meet us.
And, in returning to the Father, Jesus brings with Him His trophy:
It is all those who have kept the Word of God, so that it came alive in them.
It is those who have abandoned themselves to the Son of God and have remained faithful to Him.
It is those in whose hearts the Spirit cries out: “Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6).