“The whole purpose of our Lord’s commandments is
to rescue the spirit from chaos and hatred and lead it to love of him and love of one’s neighbour. From this springs forth, like a flash of lightning, holy knowledge.”
- Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity, IV - Open yourself to God’s wisdom and guidance. Feel yourself being drawn into God’s
loving care.
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Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 John 17:20-26 Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: ‘Holy Father,
I pray not only for these,
but for those also
who through their words will believe in me.
May they all be one.
Father, may they be one in
us,
as you are in me and I am in you,
so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
I have given them the glory you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me,
may they be so completely one
that the world will realise that it was you who sent me
and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me
to be with me where I am,
so that they may always see the glory you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of
the world.
Father, Righteous One,
the world has not known you,
but I have known you,
and these have known that you have sent me.
I have made your name known to them
and will continue to make it known,
so that the love
with which you loved me may be in them,
and so that I may be in them.’
Reflection on the Scriptures
The central desire of Jesus’ prayer is unity: “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you.” This oneness is not about uniformity but communion—a deep connection grounded in love, truth, and
divine presence. Jesus wants us to share in the same loving relationship He shares with the Father, to be drawn into the eternal embrace of God. This unity is not just spiritual or symbolic. It has real implications for how we live, love, and relate to one another. Jesus gives us the glory He received—not for personal elevation, but to draw us into
divine life. He prays that we may be “brought to perfection as one,” so that the world might believe in the love that sent Him. At the heart of this prayer is an incredible truth: we are God’s gift to Jesus. This is how much we are loved. And this love is not distant or abstract—it desires to dwell in us: “that the love with which you loved me may be
in them, and I in them.” Let this prayer of Jesus echo in your heart: I am loved, I am called, and I am one with Him. - by Rashmi Fernando, S.J.
The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, by James Arraj
https://innerexplorations.com/catchtheomor/resurrecion.htm Inner Growth Publications, 2007.
Chapter 4: The Resurrection of Jesus Space and the Resurrection Body In Resurrection: Theological and Scientific Assessments,
Robert John Russell makes the important point that despite the extensive dialogue going on today between science and religion, the topic of the resurrection has seldom been discussed.58 Unfortunately, this collection of essays does not significantly change that situation. This failure cannot be charged to the account of theologians alone, and their lack of knowledge of scientific matters. Noreen Herzfeld, in an essay in this volume “Cybernetic Immortality versus Christian Resurrection,”
illustrates how far some members of the scientific community are from a Christian understanding of the resurrection and the immortality of the soul. They are advancing an out and out materialism which they feel should replace them. These views take a variety of form: the replacement of our biological parts by mechanical ones, or an uploading of our memories and other neuronal configurations into a computer so we die in the flesh, but live on in the computer. Such views are so alien from
Christian ones that it is no wonder that the dialogue breaks down. But this does not mean that such a dialogue is impossible. Among the mostly exegetical experts who had assembled in Rome in 1970 for
the Vatican sponsored meeting on the resurrection was to be found the French philosopher and friend of Paul VI, Jean Guitton, and we can only wonder how his remarks were received among these scholars preoccupied with historical-critical matters. Guitton tells them he is making forays into unexplored territory. Human sexuality, for example, could be seen as a symbolic anticipation of the resurrection body, and he takes seriously the strange bodily phenomenon in the lives of the saints,
particularly incorruption, making reference to the earlier nineteenth century work of Görres who felt that the perfume reported as emanating from the body of the saints could be seen as a sign of the resurrection to come.59 Guitton also mentions in this regard the studies of Thurston and the French doctor, Herbert Lacher. What is most
striking, however, about Guitton’s reflections is the depth of his vision. We have moved from a world filled with historical debates and theological wrangling to an attempt to see the positive reality of the resurrection. What would happen, Guitton muses, if we saw the resurrection as a definitive step in the evolution of humankind, so just as the biosphere is followed by the Teilhardian noosphere, the noosphere is followed by a
pneumasphere?
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