He made supplication for us all in the words: "Holy Father, keep them in Your truth" (Jn 17:17). By this He declared that there is no other truth except His own Spirit.
Through Him He strengthens our souls, imprinting in them the likeness to Himself and, as it were, fencing them by ineffable power for unshakable courage. That is, He awakens a burning readiness for irresistible virtue.
Thus, when everything that hinders and can turn them back has been entirely removed, they hasten most swiftly to accomplish the will of God. They count as nothing the various evil devices of the devil and worldly sensuality.
Once sealed by the Holy Spirit and having received the pledge of grace in their mind, they have a protected heart, for they have been clothed with power from on high (Lk 24:49). Therefore Christ called down upon us sanctification from the Father, that we might taste such desirable goods.
Now again, I think, He shows the same care. To what He had said about our fitting sanctification from the Father, He added this concerning us: "The glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one, as We are one. For You loved them as You loved Me."
And again: "Father, those whom You have given Me, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me" (Jn 17:22-24). Immediately after these words He calls the Father "righteous," and with every justice.
By His good pleasure and will the Son became man, that He might become the cause of sanctification through the Spirit, of union with God, and of dwelling in the heavenly mansions. He became the cause of being with Him and beholding Him.
This was for human nature, created "for good works" (Eph 2:10). For God did not create man for evil in the beginning. Yet human nature was overthrown toward evil by the devil's impious devices.
It was, as it were, knocked from its foundation, from its original and God-beloved conduct. Therefore it was wholly true that the righteous Father had to raise up again what had been violently cast down.
He had to restore to its original state what had been dragged toward what is unfitting. That is, He had to free it from most shameful sin and transform into the first image what had been made so in the beginning.
And He had to subject to deserved punishments the one who shattered it and impiously dared to destroy it, that is, Satan. Yet I think every kind of punishment is insufficient for one who displayed such great madness against God.
Therefore He says, "Righteous Father," for "You are righteous, and good and upright is Your judgment" (Ps 118:137). You sent Me, Your true and genuine Son, into the world for help and renewal.
But what madness, He says: "The world has not known You," such as You are. Otherwise, perceiving so man-loving a decree and so gentle a good pleasure, it would have fled to its Savior and willingly rendered service to You.
This is what Christ said to the Father, as though offering thanks to Him for us and on our behalf. For being righteous, He was pleased to give salvation to those who had suffered violence, and He decreed destruction for the devil.
And the world, He says, that is, those who resist the divine and evangelical preaching, while thinking worldly things, did not know the Father as righteous. "For the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving," as Paul says.
Thus "the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ" did not shine for them (2 Cor 4:4). By contrast, He testified of His disciples that they had come to know and recognize Him.
Here again He ascribes to them a glorious and desirable dignity. He shows that they have become higher than every worldly abasement and contempt, because they have known the Father and, what is certainly evident and undeniable, the Son Himself.
When, therefore, the world is accused of not knowing the Father, that is, the true God by nature, while the disciples are testified to have known Him, is it not finally beyond doubt for everyone that they could not be of the world?
They already belong to Christ, who is above the world, according to Paul's words: "Through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14). And again concerning us: "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24).
We call the disciples those who have become outside the world, not by local or bodily position. For they appear "as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life" (Phil 2:15-16).
Rather, while walking on earth, they have their citizenship in heaven. Having been released from the desires of the flesh, or better, having set their mind above every worldly desire, they have hastened toward most excellent and highest virtue.
This accords with what is said in the Psalms: "For the mighty ones of God on the earth have been greatly exalted" (Ps 46:10). That is, those made courageous by God have left the lowliness of earthly thought and have known heavenly thoughts.
This, I think, is what "have been exalted" means. Therefore the world, He says, has not known You, Father, as righteous. But I know, for I am Your counsel and Your wisdom.
Taking little thought for the glory innate in Me and for divine dignity, I emptied Myself and descended into human poverty. I did so in order, according to Your good pleasure, to save the race that had fallen away from communion with Us.
And while the world did not know this, the disciples were enriched with knowledge. They truly understood "that You sent Me," that is, that I came to bring Your wishes to a good end through the salvation of the earth that was perishing.
THEOSIS