20. Instead of shall believe the more probable Greek reading has the present tense, as if Christ looked upon the Church of the future as actually present. He now prays not alone for the Apostles, but for all who should believe through their preaching. There is direct reference to the Apostles and their converts, but the prayer of Christ included the successors of both.

21. Ut omnes unum sint, sicut tu Pater in me, et ego in te, ut et ipsi in nobis unum sint: ut credat mundus quia tu me misisti.21. That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee: that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

21. The unity of the faithful cannot, of course, equal the unity of nature in the Persons of the Blessed Trinity; but since it is here compared with the latter, we are justified in concluding that it is as perfect as possible; and hence a unity of intellect through faith, of will through charity, and of government through the due subordination of the different members. Such a moral miracle as this unity implies, must suppose a principle of unity in the Church; that is to say, a teaching and ruling authority by which this marvellous unity is Divinely secured.

The words That the world may believe that thou hast sent me show that this unity was to be a note of the true Church, pointing it out even to the wicked world as the Church of God.

22. Et ego claritatem quam dedisti mihi, dedi eis: ut sint unum, sicut et nos unum sumus.22. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them: that they may be one, as we also are one.

22. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have [pg 304]given to them. Some understand “the glory” here mentioned to be the gift of working miracles; others, the glory about to be enjoyed by Christ's humanity, which is to be shared in by all the faithful after the day of judgment; others, the glorious privilege of Divine filiation which makes the faithful the adopted sons, as Christ was the natural Son, of God; others, in fine, the glory of the Divinity which Christ had just shared with the Apostles that night, and which He was to share with all the faithful in future, in giving them His own glorious and Divine Person in the Blessed Eucharist.

We believe that either the third or fourth is the correct opinion. But it is not easy to choose between these two. The third is the more obvious, and is certainly very probable; but in favour of the fourth it must be said it was very natural that Christ speaking of the union of the faithful on this night when He had instituted the Blessed Eucharist, should refer to that wonderful cause and pledge of union which He had just left to the faithful in the Blessed Sacrament: “For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake[112] of one bread” (1 Cor. x. 17). See also John [vi. 57].

23. Ego in eis, et tu in me: ut sint consummati in unum: et cognoscat mundus, quia tu me misisti, et dilexisti eos, sicut et me dilexisti.23. I in them, and thou in me: that they may be made perfect in one; and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast also loved me.

23. I in them, and thou in me. This clause is in apposition to the last clause of the preceding verse: “that they may be one, as we also are one,” and explains how the union there spoken of is effected, namely, by the presence of Christ in the faithful.

24. Pater, quos dedisti mihi, volo ut ubi sum ego, et illi sint mecum: ut videant claritatem meam, quam dedisti mihi, quia dilexisti me ante constitutionem mundi.24. Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me: that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world.