Consecration

Scripture: Lectionary 299. Acts 20:28-38. Psalm 68:29-30.33-35.35-36. John
17:11-19:

John's Gospel is full of surprises of grace. In today's Gospel reading we
have the word "consecration" being used. It is also able to be translated
as being set apart and made sacred, but the meaning in the context of
today's text is the great surprise of grace that is the "sense of
belonging" that consecrate means here and elsewhere in the Bible. We
usually associate it with the blessing of an altar by a bishop, but
persons, too are able to be consecrated in their relationship to Jesus,to
God, and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is using this in his most solemn and mystical prayer to the Father on
the behalf of his friends the apostles, and on our behalf on us who are the
believers in Jesus and his mission today. Like the apostles we are called
to be consecrated in the truth--that is the foundational love of Jesus who
is totally faithfull to the will of the Father now in his most solemn hour
of prayer and always. For us Jesus is the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life.
All is given to us in a personal and relational way with Jesus when it
comes to our being one with him through our consecration that he calls upon
us in his prayer. This makes our lives worth living in union with him. We
are, after all, essential relational beings who search for meaning in our
own lives through our relationships with others in our home, our
communities, our churches. Our relationship with Jesus is the greatest
that we can have and it is he who has prayed for this through our being
consecrated in the call we have received and through our Baptismal
consecration with the holy oils.

Jesus links us with his apostles who are called his friends with the TRUTH
that he is--not a nominal verity but a real foundational truth rooted in
love. There is nothing abstract or symbolic here in what Jesus is sharing
with us at this point of his priestly prayer. The love of God and Jesus is
the Holy Spirit within us. Like the apostles our holiness and our mission
is bound up with this consecration to Jesus. Some of us make this explicit
in asking Mary to be essential to our consecration to Jesus. But we all
are already there through our Baptism, a consecrated life of mission in
union with Jesus. We sense we belong and this is our faith commitment
bound up with love of one another. As today's apostles we are sent by Jesus
to speak, preach, and to witness to God's love manifested through Jesus the
Word made flesh through the flesh of Mary his mother. We fulfill the
mission of Jesus through the Spirit who helps us to love all others
especially those of the household of our faith.

Fr. Jean Pierre Prevost comments, "Nowhere in the Psalms do we find the
idea of holiness of a human being as an ideal of personal perfection to be
strived for. In the few instances where a human being is said to be holy,
what is emphasized is the BELONGINGNESS that exists between and individual
or a group and the God of holiness." ( A Short Dicitionary of the Psalms,
p. 27). Amen Alleuliah.