05/18/2026

Have you imagined your death? If you only have a few hours left, what would you do?

As Christians, our immediate instinct might be to seek forgiveness for our sins, or perhaps to leave some final, parting words of wisdom for our family and friends. We would likely find ourselves recalling the happiest, most beautiful moments shared with those we love. Surely, none of us would spend our final moments dwelling on our enemies or plotting how to haunt them from beyond the grave, like “I’m gonna bother him as a ghost even after I die.”

Recalling happy memories, wanting to be near loved ones, and offering them our final blessings is simply natural human nature, not a Christian obligation or virtue.

And in today’s gospel, we can see this natural human nature of Jesus. Today’s gospel is the beginning of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, traditionally called the High Priestly Prayer or the Farewell prayer.

It takes place on the very brink of His suffering and death. Yet, standing on the verge of His own agonizing demise, Jesus does something remarkable: He chooses to spend His final hours praying for His disciples. “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belong to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word… They are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything yours is mine.”

We see who occupies the most important place in Jesus’ heart. It carries a simple, protective nuance, like, “Father, these are my people, and they are your people. Look after them. Keep them safe.”

As the prayer continues, Jesus makes an even more specific request for our sake: “Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.”

But what does it actually mean to be “consecrated”? Does it mean to be priests, monks, nuns, or something? If we look at the etymology of the word, Jesus' prayer becomes sharper, more practical and powerful.

The Hebrew word for "to consecrate" or "to sanctify" is Qadosh, which fundamentally means "to distinguish" or to set apart from the rest.

Then, distinguish us from what? When Jesus prays for our consecration, He is asking God to distinguish us from the secular world. As He notes moments later, “They do not belong to the world anymore than I belong to the world.”

Here, Jesus is defining our true identity and where we ultimately belong. We have to live in this world, but we are not meant to live like the secular world. He prays for our consecration so that our lives look visibly different, set apart by truth and grace, even as we navigate our secular lives.

And this prayer culminates in this phrase: “Father, they are your gift to me.”



This single sentence summarizes the entire depth of Jesus’ emotion toward us. We are not just creatures or mere sinners to be forgiven but gifts to him.

Jesus’ prayer invites us to reflect on the sheer magnitude of this love. We are the ones whom he recalled on the verge of his death. This means we are in the first place in his mind.

Then what about us? Does Jesus hold first place in our minds? And are we living as the consecrated–distinguished ones in this world? Remember this beautiful reality: to the Savior of the world, we are a treasured gift.