Tuesday May 30
This begins the priestly prayer, the great prayer of Christ in the Upper Room at the end of the Last Supper. It is a dense text; each sentence should be meditated upon and deepened. We highlight just three elements: the theme of glorification of the Son, which is a clear reference to the resurrection of Jesus; the definition of "eternal life" and "knowledge of the one true God" and his messenger Jesus Christ: a ‘knowledge' in the biblical tradition of communion which implies love, deep and total commitment. Finally, the words of the prayer are the intimate bond between Jesus and his disciples.
Alternative
Meister Eckhart comments on this, “It has been written that whenever our Lord raised up his eyes, he wished to perform a great work…. Thus he instructs us that when we would pray, we should first descend in true downcast humility beneath all creatures. Only then should we ascend before the throne of wisdom, and as far as we have descended, so far shall we be granted what we have prayed for
‘He raised his eyes up from below’, from the true ground of profoundest humility. Just as the power of heaven never works so effectively, or in any element, as in the ground of earth, although it is the lowest (for here it has the greatest opportunity to work), so too God works most in a humble heart, for He has the greatest opportunity to work therein, and finds His like most therein. He thus teaches us to enter into the ground of true humility and true nakedness.”
John loved to play on the paradox of “raised up”: Jesus would be lifted up in shame on the cross, but that lifting up in shame is also a lifting up in glory. Here, Eckhart uses it in another and a more general way. As he said, “The way down is the way up.” It is a lesson that we all have to learn again and again.
