“May they all be one.”
It is a shame upon the generations of Christians that this great prayer of Christ has gone unheeded and there is such difference in the way that Jesus is professed around the world. We should wish to be at one with our fellow Christians and seek to be al one in the Lord, but we know that there are some deep-seated issues that currently prevent that from happening.
There is of course the divide between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church that seems so trivial relatively seen from today, but 1000 years of separation has caused barriers to be created. And then there is the split from Rome in the sixteenth century that subsequently saw further separation in the reformation movements.
The separation seems greater than ever and Jesus’ prayer goes unnoticed, but let’s look again. We have movements like the Ordinariate that seeks to bring Anglicans to the Church, there is active cooperation at local levels in the areas of pastoral and social care, there is mutual understanding between leaders resulting in respect for each other so that Archbishop Welby is welcome at the Vatican without any reservation.
And in recent times there is more open dialogue on the future. Fifty years after Pope Pius VI met with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in the Holy Land so we had Pope Francis meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and pledging to work towards greater cooperation between Catholics and Orthodox. Here is a real opportunity to make progress.
The question is: what do we make of this? Is it something that brings us joy that the Holy Spirit might be working to bring Jesus’ prayer closer to fulfilment? Does it not concern us, as it doesn’t matter to us in our daily worship? Or do we fear it because it might mean that what we have come to profess may be challenged through the process?
We need to pray that this initial meeting can lead to reconciliation and that we may all be one. It may take time, but we should aspire to it. After all, it is what Jesus wants of us, so why should we want less?
Gospel John 17:20-26 ©
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:
‘Holy Father,
I pray not only for these,
but for those also
who through their words will believe in me.
May they all be one.
Father, may they be one in us,
as you are in me and I am in you,
so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
I have given them the glory you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me,
may they be so completely one
that the world will realise that it was you who sent me
and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me
to be with me where I am,
so that they may always see the glory you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Father, Righteous One,
the world has not known you,
but I have known you,
and these have known that you have sent me.
I have made your name known to them
and will continue to make it known,
so that the love with which you loved me may be in them,
and so that I may be in them.’