[24] Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25] Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. [26] I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."
(CCC 858) Jesus is the Father's Emissary. From the beginning of his ministry, he "called to him those whom he desired;… And he appointed twelve, whom also he named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach" (Mk 3:13-14). From then on, they would also be his "emissaries" (Greek apostoloi). In them, Christ continues his own mission: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (Jn 20:21; cf. 13:20; 17:18). The apostles' ministry is the continuation of his mission; Jesus said to the Twelve: "he who receives you receives me" (Mt 10:40; cf. Lk 10:16). (CCC 2749) Jesus fulfilled the work of the Father completely; his prayer, like his sacrifice, extends until the end of time. The prayer of this hour fills the end-times and carries them toward their consummation. Jesus, the Son to whom the Father has given all things, has given himself wholly back to the Father, yet expresses himself with a sovereign freedom (Cf. Jn 17:11, 13, 19, 24) by virtue of the power the Father has given him over all flesh. The Son, who made himself Servant, is Lord, the Pantocrator. Our high priest who prays for us is also the one who prays in us and the God who hears our prayer. (CCC 2751) Finally, in this prayer Jesus reveals and gives to us the "knowledge," inseparably one, of the Father and of the Son (Cf. Jn 17:3, 6-10, 25), which is the very mystery of the life of prayer.
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