Jesus Is with Us in His Holy Church
On the night when He was betrayed, Jesus interceded for His Church – for His apostles and all who believe in Him through their word – that all of His disciples, “may become perfectly one” in the Father and the Son (John 17:21-23). For Jesus became flesh and dwells among us in order to reveal the father and His name, to share with us the glory of His righteousness, and to bring us to the Father in Himself. As the Father loved the Son from “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24), so He loved the whole world (John 17:23, 26). Through the apostolic witness to the baptism, cross and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1:21-22), the Lord gathers His disciples throughout the world “with on accord,” as one body in Christ (Acts 1:14). And so with one voice and by one Spirit, His Bride prays, “Come!” (Revelation 22:17). And He comes to us. He gives us “the water of life without price” to wash our robes and quench our thirst (Revelation 22:17); and He feeds us from “the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit” (Revelation 22:2).
