Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventh Sunday of Easter

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:20–26)

Now the Lord was praying and pleading not for Himself, what indeed would He want for, innocent as He was, but for our sins, just as He Himself made plain when He said to Peter: “Look, Satan was asking that he should sift you like wheat. I, however, have asked on your behalf that your faith should not fail you.” And afterward He pleaded with the Father for all people when He said: “I do not pray for these alone but for those who shall believe in me through their word, that they should all be one; just as you, Father are in me and I in you, so should they be in Us.” So great are the kindness and the fidelity alike of God, with regard to our salvation, that He was not content simply to redeem us through His own blood but beyond this that He should plead for us so fully. You may see what was the desire of him who pleaded, that just as the Father and the Son are one, so we likewise should remain in the selfsame unity. And thus it may also be understood how great a sin it is to tear apart unity and peace, because the Lord prayed for this very thing, desiring that His people should have life, knowing that discord does not enter the Kingdom of God.

Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer 30

Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, prays not for the twelve Apostles alone, but rather for all who were destined in every age to yield to and obey the words that exhort those who hear to receive that sanctification that is through faith, and to that purification which is accomplished in them through partaking of the Spirit. And He thought it not right to leave us in doubt about the objects of His prayer, that we might learn hereby what manner of men we ought to show ourselves, and what path of righteousness we ought to tread, to accomplish those things which are well-pleasing to Him. What, then, is the manner of His prayer? That, He says, they may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us. He asks, then, for a bond of love, and concord, and peace, to bring into spiritual unity those who believe; so that their unity, through perfect sympathy and inseparable harmony of soul, might resemble the features of the natural and essential unity that exists between the Father and the Son.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John 11.11