A Dialogue (Supplication) Between the Son and the Father

1. Christ prays as One perfect in His humanity

• Some stumble at seeing Christ praying, but His Holiness explains that as Christ is perfect in His divinity, He is also perfect in His humanity, and perfect humanity must pray.

• His prayer, fasting, and baptism were not personal needs but acts to “fulfill all righteousness” on behalf of humanity; in His actions all humanity acted.

2. Declaring His divinity and giving an example through His humanity

• Christ reveals His divinity by saying, “I and the Father are one,” and He gives an example to humans through praying, fasting, and lifting His eyes to heaven.

• His upward gaze is symbolic, teaching us to turn toward God.

3. “The hour has come” – the beginning of the cross

• After the Last Supper, before His arrest, He said, “The hour has come,” referring to the beginning of His path to the cross, where He willingly gave Himself to death.

• He went to the very place where He knew they would seize Him, affirming that He came for that hour.

4. The meaning of the hour: obedience and redemption

• It is the hour in which He pays the price of humanity’s sins and bears the punishment for all.

• It is the hour of offering Himself as an acceptable sacrifice and of perfect obedience to the Father unto death, even death of the cross.

• The glory of the Son is the Father’s acceptance of His sacrifice; the glory of the Father is the salvation accomplished on the cross.

5. The glory of the cross, not worldly glory

• His Holiness shows that Christ’s glory is the glory of suffering and self-giving, like the martyrs whose glory was in their endurance.

• Christ rejected worldly honor but accepted the glory of the cross through which He redeemed humanity.

6. The authority given to Christ

• The Father gave the Son authority over all flesh to grant eternal life to all who receive and believe in Him.

• This authority is not for pride but for giving life and salvation.

7. Eternal life: knowing God

• “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

• His Holiness explains that knowing God is not merely believing in His existence but an experiential, tasting knowledge full of love and spiritual awe.

• The human mind is limited and cannot comprehend the Unlimited; language fails to describe God, thus negative expressions are used such as: the Unbounded, the Unsearchable, the Incomprehensible.

8. Experiential knowledge, not mere thought

• Knowing God is the knowledge of the heart and love, not only intellect.

• His Holiness distinguishes between the fear-based knowledge of the Old Testament and the love-based knowledge revealed in Christ.

• Even the saints see only “glimpses” of God’s glory, and every vision fills the soul with wonder and satisfaction.

9. A call to seek the knowledge of God

• His Holiness urges believers to know God through Scripture, personal relationship, nature, and the lives of the saints.

• Compared to the knowledge of God, all human knowledge appears limited and lacking.

• God is absolute goodness, absolute love, absolute truth, and His knowledge requires an opened heart and divine revelation.

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