That They May Be One

(Note: Most Dioceses celebrate the Ascension of the Lord today, but here in the Archdioces of Boston, we celebrated it last Thursday. This is the Gospel for the 7th Sunday of Easter.)

 John 17: 11b-19

Sanctify Them In Truth

¹¹ And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost so that the scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁵ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Pope St. John XXIII prayed and worked for union in the Church and among all Christian Churches, and, although the future looked promising at the time,  many years and three popes later, we are still not there; it seems we are perhaps more divided than ever. "If only", a phrase often used in looking at our broken and imprerfect selves and world, we project our ideal resolution to all our problems, but find that "if only" takes a lot of time, giving up of self, and hard work to achieve.  Perhaps if we concentrated on loving one another as Jesus has loved us, we might become one.  May this prayer of Jesus be fulfilled as we willingly surrender ourselves and our self-centeredness and shift our energies toward the unity that comes with embracing Truth and living in Love.

Bro. Rene