"Jesus spent the whole night in communion. The way I would like to define communion here is that Jesus spent the night listening to the Father calling him the Beloved. That is the voice Jesus heard when he came up out of the Jordan River (Luke 3:22), and he hears that same voice on the mountain: 'You are my beloved Son, on you my favor rests. I declare you to be my Beloved, the one in whom I pour out all my love. You are my favorite one' (see Luke 9:35). It is with this knowledge of being the Beloved that Jesus could walk freely into a world in which he was not treated as the Beloved. People applauded him, laughed at him, praised him, and rejected him. They called out 'Hosanna!' and they called out 'Crucify!' But in the midst of all those voices, Jesus knew one thing — I am the Beloved; I am God's favorite one. He clung to that voice. When Jesus enters into prayer in the night he is totally free from everything and totally open to the voice that calls him the Beloved.
"Why is it so important that we are with God and God alone on the mountaintop? It's important because it's the place in which we can listen to the voice of the One who calls us the beloved. Jesus says to you and to me that we are loved as he is loved. That same voice is there for us. To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of our being and permeate our whole life. Who am I? I am the beloved. If we are not claiming that voice as the deepest truth of our being, then we cannot walk freely in this world."
