Sunday, 01 June 2014
Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A
St. Justin, Martyr (+ c. 165) - Memorial
Commentary of the day
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Benedict XVI: "I revealed your name"
Jn 17:1-11a.
When Jesus
had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has
come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,
and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,
and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day :
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013]
Der Gott Jesu Christi (trans. The God of Jesus Christ, Ignatius press 2008, p. 23)
What, then, does "the name of God" mean?... The Revelation of John speaks of
the adversary of God, the "beast". This beast, the power opposed to God, has
no name, but a number. The seer tells us: "Its number is six hundred and
sixty-six" (Rv 13,18). It is a number, and it makes men numbers. We who lived
through the world of the concentration camps know what that means. The terror
of that world is rooted in the fact that it obliterates men's faces... But God
has a name, and God calls us by our name. He is a Person, and he seeks the
person. He has a face, and he seeks our face. He has a heart, and he seeks our
heart. For him, we are not some function in a "world machinery". On the
contrary, it is precisely those who have no function that are his own. A name
allows me to be addressed. A name denotes community.
This is why Christ is the true Moses, the fulfillment of the revelation of God's name. He does not bring some new word as God's name; he does more than this, since he himself is the face of God. He himself is the name of God. In him, we can address God as "you", as person, as heart. His own name, Jesus, brings the mysterious name at the burning bush to its fulfillment (Ex 3,14); now we can see that God had not said all that he had to say but had interrupted his discourse for a time. This is because the name "Jesus" in its Hebrew form includes the word "Yahweh" and adds a further element to it: God "saves". "I am who I am"-thanks to Jesus, this now means: "I am the one who saves you." His Being is salvation.
This is why Christ is the true Moses, the fulfillment of the revelation of God's name. He does not bring some new word as God's name; he does more than this, since he himself is the face of God. He himself is the name of God. In him, we can address God as "you", as person, as heart. His own name, Jesus, brings the mysterious name at the burning bush to its fulfillment (Ex 3,14); now we can see that God had not said all that he had to say but had interrupted his discourse for a time. This is because the name "Jesus" in its Hebrew form includes the word "Yahweh" and adds a further element to it: God "saves". "I am who I am"-thanks to Jesus, this now means: "I am the one who saves you." His Being is salvation.
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