The Truth

A Reflection on Acts 20:17-27 and John 17:1-11a


17From Miletus Paul had the presbyters of the Church at Ephesus summoned. 18When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. 19I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, 20and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. 21I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. 22But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, 23except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. 24Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace. 25“But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again. 26And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, 27for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”
(Acts 20:17-27)

1Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, 2just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. 3Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. 5Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. 6“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, 8because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, 10and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. 11a And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.” (John 17:1-11a)


"Never did I shrink from telling you what was for your own good.... I take the blame for no one's conscience, for I have never shrunk from announcing to you God's design in its entirety" — the words of St. Paul to his spiritual children in Ephesus as he neared the end of his life. "I have made your name known to those you gave me out of the world.... I entrusted to them the message you entrusted to me" — the words of Jesus to the Father as he neared the end of his life.

Will you be able to say the same thing at the end of your life?

To a certain degree, Terry A. Modica is correct that we live today in a very “polite society” in that we often will hide the truth from others for the sake of being “nice”. We often allow others to violate the truth for the sake of being “politically correct” or at least not to “rock the boat”. But Jesus came specifically to rock the boat. He was not always polite and He certainly was not a politically correct type of person. He gave us the Holy Spirit so that we could be His true witnesses to the Eternal Truth, not humanity’s weak version it. We, His true and faithful followers, were given the sacred task to be witnesses for the Father’s Truth to all peoples, in all places, throughout all ages sometimes by words but always through actions in the Holy way in which we live. We were charged to be bold, visible, and confident messengers

As devout followers of Jesus, we must ask ourselves whether we really want him to be our Lord and teacher. Do we really want to imitate him? Do we really want to be faithful followers of this Rabbi from Nazareth?

We teach others His Way through how we live our lives. Our conduct speaks much louder than our words and it is usually a far more reliable measure of our beliefs. Modica asks, “How many times have we noticed coworkers struggling with a problem and we've not asked if we could pray for them? When did we see a stranger in the pew next to us at Mass who seemed unhappy and we didn't reach out to show that we cared? How many times have we heard someone quote Jesus inaccurately or misrepresent His teachings and held our tongues, looked away sheepishly, afraid to confront their ignorance with the Truth because we were too shy or timid, too lazy and couldn’t be bothered, or felt it just wasn’t important enough to engage in what might well become an argument, especially if the person(s) involved are family or friends, co-workers or bosses?

Every day we encounter opportunities to evangelize; sometimes they are hostile confrontations, most often they are not. The true acolyte or follower of Jesus Christ keeps an eye out for such opportunities. Modica has a very useful suggestion to help us develop the awareness necessary to spot the opportunities because if you can’t do that successfully, everyday golden opportunities will slip on by. I personally believe natural opportunities that pop up during conversation or joint observation of an act or news story make the best teaching moments because they don’t seem nor usually sound preachy which puts a lot of people automatically on the defensive. Modica suggests that as we watch for these opportunities, count them and at the end of day, write them down in a notebook. Place a ‘plus’ by each incident in which you made an effort to give witness to Christ and a minus next to the ones you forgot or held back on. Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you improve tomorrow. With His help, you will become a better teacher, preacher, and witness to the Way of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

‘Ani’ of the Anawim Hermitage