Gospel and Word of the Day - 04 June 2025

A reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 20:28-38

At Miletus, Paul spoke to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus:
“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock
of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers,
in which you tend the Church of God
that he acquired with his own Blood.
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,
and they will not spare the flock.
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth
to draw the disciples away after them.
So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day,
I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears.
And now I commend you to God
and to that gracious word of his that can build you up
and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.
I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.
You know well that these very hands
have served my needs and my companions.
In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort
we must help the weak,
and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said,
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

When he had finished speaking
he knelt down and prayed with them all.
They were all weeping loudly
as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him,
for they were deeply distressed that he had said
that they would never see his face again.
Then they escorted him to the ship.

From the Gospel according to John
17:11b-19

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

In the prayer of the Upper Room, Jesus prays for the disciples: “Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be  consecrated in truth” (John 17:17–19). Afterwards, Jesus extends this same prayer to include the future generations of his disciples. Above all, he prays for unity, so that “the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). Toward the end of his intercession, Jesus returns to the key themes mentioned earlier, underscoring once again their vital importance. In this context, he prays for all those whom the Father has given him: “that they may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

9. Truly, the “priestly prayer” of Jesus is the synthesis of that self-revelation of God in the Son, which lies at the heart of the Gospels. The Son speaks to the Father in the name of the unity that he shares with him—“You, Father, are in me and I in you” (John 17:21). At the same time, he prays that the fruits of the saving mission for which he came into the world may be poured out upon humanity. In doing so, he reveals the mysterium Ecclesiae—the mystery of the Church—which is born from his salvific mission, and he prays for its future development in the midst of the “world”.  He opens the perspective of glory,  to which all those who “welcome” his word are called together with him. (Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 22 July 1987)