In the I AM

“So that they may be one as we are.”   It would not be an exaggeration to say that Jesus wants one Church.  This steady drumbeat message seems to be the main burden of Jesus’ prayer. The Father and the Son are remarkably close, and it seems that Jesus would love to have his Church experience and participate in this comparable closeness.   The lock the Father and Son have on each other is the way I want to be spiritually locked into Jesus and the Father.   Before this one-ness happens with the Church, it seems important for us to individually and corporately seek our own “lockage” with Jesus and the Father.  This seems like a vertical, devotional relationship.  The Father is so locked into the Son that he seeks his Son’s glory more than anything else in the world; the Son seeks the Father’s glory above all else.  Now we are invited into this amazing commitment!  Does this not scream of the eucharist?  We break bread and literally ingest it into our bodies.  “So that they may be one as We are one.”  We are physically ingesting the body of Christ as a way to be one with Him.   Oh, may we find ways into this upward devotion, for the sake of the Church’s outward reach in the wide world around us!

“Keep them in your name that you gave to me, so that they may be one as we are one.”   I couldn’t help but think about being kept in God’s name.  What is God’s name that He gave to Jesus?.....the “I AM.”  Woah! Jesus is praying for his disciples to be kept inside his I Am.  Flash to the I Am statements that we use during our Barney training, and I am enveloped in the Who we are being kept inside: the good shepherd, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life, the light of the world, etc.  What richness to participate and live in!