The readings for Third Sunday of Easter may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052922-sunday.cfm
We live in a very divided world, don’t we?
Them, those, they, me, I, you.
Guns, politics, systemic racism, the causes of inflation and gas prices, whether we should do more in Ukraine, who can love who, who gets to decide when life begins and when it ends, among other things.
You name it - we disagree on it.
So much emotion, opinion, hatred, exclusion, indifference, sin, tragedy and pain.
I’m sure the devil loves it.
It’s exactly what he wants.
Because if we are busy focusing on ourselves, our selfish wants and on tearing each other down, we are working 100% against what Jesus prays for in today’s Gospel from Saint John.
Today, we hear what is known as the third part of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, also called the High Priestly Prayer.
Jesus prayed it at the Last Supper.
And it must be important.
Not just because it comes from Jesus, but because with all three parts combined, it is the longest prayer appearing in any of the gospels.
And for Jesus to take that kind of time - to pray such a long prayer on the night before he was brutally tortured and murdered the next day - speaks to how important this it is.
The third part of his prayer is all about unity of the universal church.
In it, Jesus reminds us of the complete union between himself and the Father and asks that their unity be extended to all who believe in him.
He prays that we be one with each other, with him, and with the Father.
But how do we become one, exactly?
It’s not that we share the same interests or have the same opinions or feel the same emotions about the same things.
It’s that we are one in Jesus and discover, despite our obvious differences, that we are one in God.
Let me try to explain.
We know there is one God.
Our God consists of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Trinity always reminds me of a cartoon I love.
It shows Jesus walking into a coffee shop, and a sign hanging at the register that reads “Free coffee - one per person” - and Jesus holds up three fingers and says, “I guess I’ll take three, then.”
I love that.
Our God is made up of three persons in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And we are united to Jesus, the Son.
And with Jesus we are formed into the one Body of Christ by the will of God and by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And we believe.
And we meet and worship our God in the sacraments, especially in confession and the Eucharist.
And we show our love for one another in service as disciples of Christ.
And through that worship and service we strengthen our belief even more.
And the cycle repeats itself.
Belief. Worship. Service. Rinse. Repeat.
Our prayer should be the same as Jesus’ - that we might all be one.
That we widen our community beyond this building, beyond our comfort level.
As disciples, we can’t insulate ourselves from the rest of the world.
We can’t be one by excluding people and leaving them out.
Because Jesus and the Father want our oneness, we should want it too - for as many people as possible.
This week, let us pray for each other - for greater unity and for the world to better know God and the saving power of Jesus -
Let us pray for oneness, just as Jesus prays the same for us.
Thankfully, we all are alive and have air in our lungs, where we can still feel, think, believe, worship, serve and pray.
Especially this Memorial Day weekend, let us take time to pray for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, for the souls of the faithful departed and especially those souls in purgatory.
Sometimes, we try to soften our own grief when someone dear to us passes away by speaking about them as though they are in heaven. Maybe they are.
Jesus knows if they are.
But we don’t.
Let us pray for the souls in purgatory.
That they may soon become one with the Father and share in his everlasting glory in heaven.
