Scripture Scribbles: May 21, 2023

the Gospel

John 17:1-11a

Jesus 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 your son 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.”

the devotion

Stopped at the light at the Market Basket Plaza, I can’t help reflectively gazing across at St. Mary’s Cemetery, acknowledging that my body will one day rest at peace with the others, my soul hopefully in eternity with Jesus Christ.

“Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” The gift of eternal life is granted simply by knowing Jesus. How do I get to know Jesus? By spending time with Him in Eucharistic adoration and beholding His face, pure love. By listening to His voice in the Holy Scriptures and meditating on His words. By receiving Him in Communion at Mass, allowing Him to gently transform me into His image and likeness and inflame me with divine love so that I can love more perfectly. By praying, conversing with Him, and receiving His Holy Spirit for strength, healing, and guidance. By immersing myself in the Bible, Catechism of the Catholic Church, and other spiritual writings.

From knowing God flows loving Him, and the fruit of love is service. (If you love me, keep my commandments, feed my sheep.) “God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve Him, and so to come to paradise” (CCC 1721). We belong to God (“they are yours”). Let us glorify God by our lives, so that we may be glorified by Him in heaven. “Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you.”

Today’s devotion was written by Karen Molvar