First Reading – Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26;
Second Reading – 1 John 4:11-16;
Gospel – John 17:11b-19
Rabbi Robert Alpers says he once phoned a synagogue and was greeted with this message. “Welcome to Temple Beth Shalom. If you want information about our programs and events, please press 1. For information on our service hours, please press 2. If you would like to complain to the rabbi, please press 3. If you want to complain about the rabbi, press 4, 5, or 6.” It seems that, apparently, more than a few people were upset with the rabbi. Too many things can disrupt the unity of a Church. People get upset with the decisions of a board. Or people get upset with the pastor. Jesus knew that it would not be easy to maintain unity among a talented, yet sometimes cantankerous group of people. He also knew, however, that we can never accomplish the things that he has called us to accomplish if we do not ask His help to pull together. That is why we have this prayer for unity in today’s Gospel.
Christian love resulting in Christian unity is the main theme of today’s Scripture lessons. The first reading, taken from Acts, tells us how the eleven apostles as one unit, relying on the power of God, elected Matthias to replace Judas. This incorporation was done by the whole community under the chairmanship of Peter, choosing Matthias by lot. The outcome was taken to be the will of the Holy Spirit. The second reading, taken from John’s first Letter to the Church, emphasizes the centrality of love in our Christian living. It shows us how the apostle dealt with disunity in the Church by teaching the members the basis of true Christian love and unity. For John, love and unity among Christians is the first and most important witness for believers to bear.
In today’s Gospel passage, we have the high priestly prayer of Jesus whereby he prays in particular for those disciples who are sharing the meal with him. The core of Jesus’ message is love, a love that is to be manifested not only in nice-sounding words but, more convincingly, in the genuine acts of love that bind his disciples together into one community. Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. “Jesus’ last testament represents the longest prayer in the Christian Scriptures and revolves around the shared union between the Father and the Son, between the Son and his disciples and among future generations of believers.” (Sanchez Files). The Holy Spirit, through John, wants us to know that Jesus prayed for his disciples that they would carry on his distinctive witness in the world.
The content of the prayer: There are three parts in Jesus’ prayer. 1) Jesus Prays for His Glorification (17:1-8). 2) Jesus Prays for the Faith Community (17:9-23). 3) Jesus Prays for the Eschatological Union of Father, Son, and Believers (17:24-26). The main elements of the prayer are a) the founding of the community (17:6-8), b) the petition for the preservation and sanctification of the community (17:9-19), c) the petition for the oneness of the community (17:20-23), and d) the petition for the perfecting of the believers (17:24-26).
This prayer tells us something about Jesus’ relationship with his disciples. The disciples are given to Jesus by God. It is the Holy Spirit, God, who prompts us to become Jesus’ disciples. Through the disciples, glory has come to Jesus because the men whom Jesus has redeemed bring honour to him. A disciple is a man who is commissioned to a task. As the Father has sent Jesus to redeem the world, Jesus sends out his disciples into the world, to lead it back to God and to make it aware of God. He prays for his men in order that they may be such as to win the world for him.
Jesus’ warning and promise: Further, this passage tells us that Jesus offered his men two things. He offered them a warning. He told them that they were different from the world, and that they could not expect anything but hatred from it because their values and standards were different from those of the world. He offered them his joy. All Jesus was saying to them was designed to bring them joy. It is by facing the hostility of the world that they will enter into the Christian joy.
Jesus’ unique claim: In this prayer Jesus makes the greatest claim he ever made: “All that I have is Yours, and all that You have is mine” (John 17:10). Never did Jesus so vividly set forth his oneness with God, He is so much one with God his Father that Jesus exercises the Father’s very power and prerogatives.
We need to understand, appreciate, cooperate with, and pray with and for each other: The denominations are a reality. There is no use in our blaming each other for the historical events which caused these divisions in Christ’s Body. What we can do is to learn sympathetically about the doctrinal similarities and differences of the members of our Christian community and learn to love each one and cooperate with the members of all denominations in all possible ways. 2) Let us pray fervently that God may show us how to proceed in building true and lasting Christian unity without sacrificing the basic Christian principles and teachings.