Ss Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell and companions SJ | Wednesday 1 December 2021

Today is Wednesday the 1 December, the feast of
Saints Edmund Campion SJ, Robert Southwell SJ and companions, in the first week of Advent.
 

Salt of the Sound sing, ‘Come to Us (Abide)’.
 

John 17:11-21

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. 

 
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 
 
The Jesuit martyrs remembered today all suffered torture and painful deaths for witnessing to their faith. The reading that you have just heard shows that this rejection is not unexpected for a follower of Christ. How do you react to such a message? 
 
Nevertheless, Jesus speaks here of the joy that can be experienced even in the midst of such rejection. Can you recall anything in your own experience that corresponds to this? 
 
Notice, as the passage is read again, how it ends with Jesus praying for us, those who believe on account of the apostles
’ witness. Imagine Jesus praying to his Father for you, now. 
 
Take a moment or two before this prayer ends to speak to the Jesus who has been praying for you. 
 
O Wisdom
Lord and Ruler
Root of Jesse
 
Key of David
Rising Sun
 
King of the Nations
Emmanuel
Come, Lord Jesus