MAY THEY ALL BE ONE

Today, we celebrate the 7th Sunday of Easter after the Ascension of the Lord, when Jesus tells His disciples to ‘wait’ for the Holy Spirit.  We too ‘wait’ in anticipation of Pentecost, next week.  This ‘waiting’ helps us understand the importance of discernment, to act from prayerful waiting and spiritual strength, and not from fear or other restlessness. To do so, today’s readings focus and teach us on unity, faith, and love; so as to strengthen our faith and to unite us with God and to each other.

In the first reading Acts 7: 55-60, the witness of St. Stephen’s faith and forgiveness are examples for us. He is known as the protomartyr, the first amongst the martyrs whom the Church has venerated since the beginning. God inspired him to speak boldly.  Stephen’s faithful testimony gives a concise sharing of Israel and their relationship to God.  In the most familiar verse, Stephen said to the Jews and called them a “stiff-necked people, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do” and “are the ones that received the Law as ordained by the angels, and yet you have not kept it” (Acts 7: 51,53).  As he is stoned to death, he stands firm in faith and “filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand” (Acts 7:55).  He asks Jesus to receive his spirit and to forgive his killers, following Jesus’ footsteps. This vision reflects the hope we have in Christ and to find strength in Him.

In today’s second reading, we have the privilege of the last words of the Bible in Revelation 22 - a summation, a call and response of Jesus and His Church (which represents us the people of God).  Jesus says “I am the Alpha and Omega,” the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.  He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, all praise to the Father from whom all things and existence come.

Through our baptism, we are blessed for “those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates” (Rev. 22:14).  Baptism, ‘the door to the spiritual life’ (Thomas Aquinas) gives us the Sacraments, the Eucharistic celebration, and through our priests and religious, teachings, traditions, and community - help to grow our faith and understanding, and to build our relationship and love for God.

In Revelation 22:12 Jesus says “very soon now, I shall be with you again” – while we wait, Jesus’ promised return gives us hope. “The Spirit and the Bride invite everyone to ‘Come’ and receive this gift” (Rev 22:17). The Bride is the Church and we; the people of God are the Church. Jesus offers and invites everyone to receive the water of life and that God’s grace is for all.  The water of life is a symbol of eternal life and Jesus wants everyone to be with Him and to have the joy of eternal life. 

The Holy Spirit also says “Come.” Bishop Barron (Understanding the Holy Spirit) speaks of the Father sending the Son into our humanity to embrace the world. The Holy Spirit breathed forth by the Father and the Son is the love that connects the Father and the Son, the love in which the Son was sent, the love in which the Son accepted His mission. We have a spiritual life as we have been gathered into the love of the Father and the Son.  St. Paul says “No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1Cor. 12:3).

In today’s Gospel reading of Jesus’ Prayer for Unity, He prays for all of us ‘May they all be One.  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you” (John 17: 21).  Jesus prays for believers to be united with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and with each other; reflecting the divine love and unity that Jesus demonstrated in His life and teachings. We see this Prayer continuing to animate and alive in the Church to this day - not only at a personal level, but also through ecumenical efforts among different Christian denominations and interfaith dialogue across religions.

In our Catechism of the Catholic Church (n.820) we learn that “Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her.  The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.”

When the unity of Christians is impaired in any way, it “openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature” (Vatican Council II, Decree on Ecumenism).

Pope Benedict taught in the Prayer for Christian Unity 2012 that “Jesus prays that His disciples may be one.   By virtue of this unity, received and preserved, the Church can walk in the world without being in the world and can live the mission entrusted to her so that the world may believe in the Son and in the Father who sent him. Therefore, the Church becomes the place in which the mission of Christ itself continues to lead the world out of man’s alienation from God and out of himself, out of sin, so that it may return to being the world of God.”

Pope Leo XIV at the Mass of Inauguration of his Petrine Ministry at Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday, May 18th expressed his hope for "a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world."  In the face of a world marked by discord and wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear, and economic reality “that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest,” the Pope said, “we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity within the world.”

"We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: Look to Christ! Come closer to Him! Welcome His word that enlightens and consoles! Listen to His offer of love and become His one family: in the One Christ, we are One," he urged. "This is the path to follow together, among ourselves but also with our sister Christian churches, with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will, in order to build a new world where peace reigns!"

The Church is a people of forgiven sinners, ever in need of mercy, who for that very reason should shy away from any superiority complex, as followers of a God who chose the way of weakness and humbled himself by accepting death on the cross to save us.  Pope Leo invites us to cast our gaze far, to go forth to confront the questions, the restlessness, and the challenges of today.

As we looK forward to Pentecost, we pray for the Holy Spirit to fill and enlighten our lives and families every day, and in unceasing gratitude for God’s presence, blessings, and goodness. With the busyness, and many distractions that get in the way, to help us keep walking towards God and to strive to be leaven, in any way and even in small ways; as we await in joy, peace and blessed hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray and ask the Lord for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon us, the Church.  As in the refrain of the song (link below), “We are One Body, One Body in Christ. And He came that we might have life.”  The entire Bible ends with the community responding “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).

We are One Body, One Body in Christ

Article by Olivia Tan, HFC Blog Contributor

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