Friends,
in today’s Gospel Jesus is sitting at supper with his disciples, the
core of the Church, on the last night of his life on earth. Jesus prays,
“I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me
through their word, so that they may all be one.”
What
precisely are the bonds of unity within the body of Christ? What are
the elements that foster Christian unity? I would first mention the
credal expressions of the one faith of the Apostles. At every Sunday
Mass, Catholics stand to profess together the Nicene Creed, in all of
its verbal and conceptual complexity, recapitulating thereby the
victories won in the early Church by the advocates of the apostolic
faith over those who would compromise it.
I
would mention as well the liturgy and the sacraments and devotional
practices. We are one in the measure that we participate together in
common worship and in common means of accessing the divine
life. We are united, too, in our commitment to the brothers and sisters
through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. And finally, we are
one through our shared structure of order which comes from the Apostles.
Through these various means, we become saints, people whose lives are about one thing.
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Lectionary: 300
Wishing to determine the truth
about why Paul was being accused by the Jews,
the commander freed him
and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene.
Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them.
Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees,
so he called out before the Sanhedrin,
"My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees;
I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead."
When he said this,
a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees,
and the group became divided.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection
or angels or spirits,
while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.
A great uproar occurred,
and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party
stood up and sharply argued,
"We find nothing wrong with this man.
Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"
The dispute was so serious that the commander,
afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them,
ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst
and take him into the compound.
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage.
For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem,
so you must also bear witness in Rome."
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
"I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them."
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