Gospel (Jn 17,11b-19) - At that time, [Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, saying:] «Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, so that they may be one, like us. When I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you gave me, and I kept them, and none of them was lost, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. »But now I come to you and say this while I am in the world, so that they may have the fullness of my joy within themselves. I gave them your word and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you guard them from the Evil One. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Consecrate them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world; for them I consecrate myself, so that they too may be consecrated in the truth."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Jesus has just addressed the invocation to the Father to protect his disciples. Those eleven were about to be left alone, that is, without his physical presence anymore. And Jesus knows well that they will have to face very difficult trials. Will they be able to resist the attacks of evil that will try in every way to distance them from him and from the Gospel? He knows well that the devil (in Greek "he who divides") wants to disperse them and leave men in solitude and isolation. And he prays: «Guard them in your name... so that they may be one, like us». The unity between the Father and the Son becomes not only the yardstick for the authenticity of the disciples, but also the reason for the Christian vocation. Salvation is the communion between all with the Father and the Son. And in communion we find the fullness of joy, as Jesus himself says: "So that they may have the fullness of my joy within themselves." The joy of the disciples is not an easy and predictable optimism, but the fruit of communion that breaks down every division. This work is not simply born from our good will, but from listening to the Word of God which pushes each of us to leave our own world to meet others and create new bonds of brotherhood. Jesus does not pray for them to be removed from the world, it would be the very denial of the Gospel. Rather, Christians are called to be the leaven of brotherhood in the world. This is their vocation: to transform the world so that it is increasingly a world of brotherhood and love among all. “As you sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world.” There is like a red thread that ties the heart of the Trinity, when the Son said to the Father "Here I am, send me!", to Jesus' sending of disciples of all time on a mission into the world so that they may continue to fulfill the God's own work.