Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Marital Hour

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 05.21.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
John 17:1-11a

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
as the Lord anticipates his glorification on the cross,
he prays, “Father, the hour has come.”
The “hour” was a focal point of Jesus’ entire life.
At the outset of his ministry,
Jesus declined his mother’s request at the wedding of Cana saying,
“Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come.”

Mary is presented here as the new Eve,
the new representative of the human race,
with whom God is seeking union.
But why the aloof and off-putting words?
The best explanation, in my judgment, is that this is a narrative device
that serves to highlight the importance of Jesus’ “hour”
and that shows the relation between what he does at Cana
and what will transpire in that hour.

The “hour” is code for the Paschal Mystery,
Jesus’ passage through death to life.
In that event, God will effect the perfect marriage
between himself and the human race,
for he will enter into the most intimate union with us,
embracing even death itself
and leading us into the bridal chamber of the divine life.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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.”+++