In fact, this is what is called Jesus’ Priestly Prayer, because He offers, in His words, the very sacrifice He made by His Passion and death, He literally pours Himself out before the Father in the same way that He did on the Cross, so that what He says He has already done, so that what He asks is reinforced by the great sacrifice He has made for every single one of us.
That is why when we pray, we aren’t meant to merely speak words, but, like Jesus, pour ourselves out before the Father, so that what we say comes from the deepest recesses of our souls, from the greatest depths of our hearts.
This is why Jesus’ prayer is of one pouring Himself out in love, a prayer of intercession but, indeed, also a prayer of sacrifice, because this was also His prayer before being arrested. Therefore, while it is Jesus speaking to the Father, literally, love speaking to love, it becomes then both a conversation of love but also, a form of sacrifice.
Jesus’ prayer was His life and His life was, indeed, a constant sacrifice, yet that is what He is showing us, that, ultimately, what lies at the heart of any prayer, and what all prayer, including our own, demands is sacrifice. Because if prayer is a conversation of love but we are not willing to pour ourselves out, to make every effort that that prayer demands, setting apart time in our busy schedules, or not doing something else when we should be praying, then our hearts will never burn for God whom we should love above all things.
To love Him means more than just knowing Him, more than what we say or how we feel, it is an abandonment of ourselves to the point that we only know ourselves by Him. St. John of the Cross put it well, he said: “Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.”
In essence, our prayer is to help us become, like that Eucharist that we receive, transformed, raised up, and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And, the way that happens is the same way that Jesus shows and has shown in His own prayer, by establishing a deep, intimate and loving relationship with God, to the point that we, literally, become one with Him, so that His Will and our will are the same, His desire and our desires no different.
It is this that lies at the heart of all prayer and what all prayer demands, the ability to lay down our very selves, like Christ, to step away from who we want to be in order to allow God to show us who we truly are.
Because, indeed, if prayer is simply a conversation of love, our hearts will never burn for God to the degree that He desires, our hearts will never long for whom we should love above all things without sacrifice. It was St. Louis de Montfort who put it well, he said: “The more you give yourself, the more God will give himself to you.”
This was Jesus’ promise in our Gospel, this was His request, His prayer for us: “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.” So, that the more we give, the more we receive, so that our prayer, though not perfect like His, will still have merit, will still be a conversation of love.
And, as a result, we will come to know the same intimacy that Jesus shares with the Father, and the reasons for His Ascension will become manifest in our own lives, because this is what He asks of us.
What’s more is that when and if our prayer becomes an outpouring of ourselves, we will be able to pray as Jesus, and we will learn to pray for God’s sake rather than our own and by doing so we will also come to understand and grow in our love for Mary as well.
Because not only is she the perfect model of prayer, she is the best example of sacrificial prayer, of how to constantly appeal to her Son, the way He appeals to the Father.
This is why prayer is not a waste of time or pointless, or even why it feels like our prayers are never answered, because prayer is more than just a bunch of words, it is more than making God a genie granting our every wish, it is, indeed, a conversation, it should be a daily conversation and it should be frequent. It should be time spent with someone who loves us so much He not only sent His Son who died for us, but who sought and continues to seek our protection so that we get to spend eternity with Him.
And, all it takes is to spend time with Him now, all it takes are simple words spoken from our hearts, all it takes is to acknowledge Him, to abandon ourselves to Him, and simply show how much we love Him, He who loves us more than we could ever know.
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