NO chapter of the New Testament more perfectly sets forth Jesus' consciousness of man's unity with God than the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel. The words there recorded the Master spoke out of a profound sense of at-one-ment with the Father. In letters of light there is set forth the realization that his spiritual and perfect selfhood was divine; that it came out from God, from whom man is inseparable, and with whom man is forever united. In the fullness of this consciousness, Christ Jesus pleaded to be exalted, in order that thereby in the terrible ordeal ahead he, in turn, might glorify the Father through demonstrating that Life is indestructible and man perfect.
But the Master's supplication went much further. Fully aware that the purport of his message must be perpetuated for mankind through the lives of his faithful disciples, and, likewise, foreseeing the stern opposition they were sure to meet in the propagation of spiritual truth, he also besought for them the protection, guidance, and blessing of the all-loving Father. In the fulfillment of this exalted purpose he prayed that they too might become as conscious as was he of man's unity through the Christ with God. "That they all may be one," he implored; "as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." And in full consciousness of his sublime faithfulness as a true witness of the Father he protested, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."
The unity, the oneness, with the Father, which Christ Jesus so fully realized, is the relationship which exists eternally between God, divine Mind, and His perfect idea, man. Mrs. Eddy has likened this relationship to that which exists between the sun and the rays which express or reflect the sun, their source; as its rays express or reflect the sun, so man, including all divine ideas, expresses and reflects God. This characterization of man as reflection, a characterization which was original with our Leader, is highly revelatory of the true nature of man. It is a term worthy of the most careful study; and perhaps no word more vividly conveys the nature and essence of man, and man's unchanging unity with God than "reflection."
