A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 17:20-26
***The readings on this page are from the Jerusalem Bible, which is used at Mass in most of the English-speaking world. The New American Bible gospel reading, which is used at Mass in the United States is John 14:23-29***
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.’
REFLECTION:
Jesus prays this prayer for us the night before his Crucifixion - that we may be one.
Of all the prayer intentions to single out, God Himself wills our unity. Why?
Because in Original Sin, the unity of mind, body, soul and spirit was plunged into chaos and we live a fractured state. Like an orchestra in harmony and in sync, beautiful music is made; we were created to also emanate the beauty and goodness of God as our mind, body, soul and spirit were intended to be in harmony and in sync. The reality is that the wounds of sin mean that we are “ NOT in sync” within ourselves. In fact, we cannot regain this unity without grace and the redemptive death of Jesus Christ.
Jesus restores the possibility for us to once again have unity within ourselves, but He respects our freedom. We are free to desire this unity for ourselves, or not. There are many times where we continue to choose chaos over harmony, sin over virtue.
To create unity in our family home, our work place, our country and our Church, we must first cultivate unity in ourselves through constant conversion and uprooting the chaos in our own souls.
With God everything is possible.
