“… that they all may be one, as you, Father, and I are one … so that the world may believe …”
Unity seems to be the theme for the readings during this seventh week after Christ’s resurrection Easter Morning. In many ways, these are among the saddest words in the Bible. Sad, because we have failed this prayer so miserably, so consistently, right from day one. Today we live with a fractured, fragmented Christianity: East and West, Protestant and Catholic, with hundreds of splinter groups within the major divisions. How can the world believe, what is the world to believe, if the witness we give to Jesus is divided and divisive?
Sure, we can say that we did not personally cause the splits, but we do have to be concerned about them, take responsibility for doing something about them. We fail Jesus’ post-resurrection command to preach the good news to every nation if our divisions testify to a lie in what we believe as we preach. Somehow, we find enough fervor to be concerned about global warming, protecting each other during the current rainy season, the ecology, rain forests, threatened species, whether to use gas or electricity to cook our food, how that electricity is going to be generated, and how we are going to power our cars in the future. Why can’t we seem to muster at least equivalent concern for this challenge of unity, surely no less important than the others? The world desperately needs to hear the good news, but so long as we adhere to our divisions, we make it impossible for the world to really hear Jesus’ message.
Remember two weeks ago when I talked about how evil works in our world? The devilish works by dividing us from each other, tearing us apart and having us habitually slander each other so that community is forever being torn apart through jealousy and accusation. And that the satanic unites us through the grip of mob hysteria, social hype, self-serving ideologies, racism, sexism, envy, hatred, and in a myriad of other malevolent ways, so as to draw us into mob-hatred, gang rapes, lynchings.
It is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong. As long as we disobey Jesus’ fervent plea at the Last Supper, we are all wrong. We must realize that it is possible to have unity without uniformity. We do have room for differences and for different perspectives; but above all, we must be together.
There is an interesting, possibly instructive parallel, in a story we read a few weeks ago from Acts (Acts 6:1–12). This was the dispute about whether the widows of the Greek-speaking Jews were getting their share of the common resources, particularly food. The dispute was not really about food, but about viewpoints, about culture, about who was a good Christian and who wasn’t. You can just hear the two sides as they approach Peter: “Tell them that . . .” “Make them do . . .” Notice, however, that Luke does not tell us that Peter sided with one faction or the other. He didn’t say one was right, or the other was wrong. What Acts does tell us is that Peter set up a system that would enable both sides to continue to coexist. That surely is a powerful illustration of what the Petrine office ought to be and ought to do.
It is we Christians who must manifest to the world the unity of Jesus and His Father. And it is we who must beseech heaven to help us do that. God wants to help, that’s clear. We must want to help as well.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!