7th Sunday of Easter 30/5/2022 Jn 17, 20-26
We talk and pray and yearn for Christian Unity but do we ever give serious thought to what it means. In any community there are differences of opinion; they may be small differences but they are present. The larger the community, however, the wider are the differences. Yet, all the members want to belong to the community or group or Church recognising that there is a common bond and that they share a common spirit, that they belong. Unity, then, is not about everyone agreeing with absolutely everything but about sharing a common spirit. Of course, the academic will argue that there has to be a shared understanding about the fundamentals of a creed or constitution or raison d'être but this common belief exists among the Churches. One of the difficulties around ecumenism among the Christian Churches is that there are many non-Catholic Christians who have greater respect for the Pope and his authority than do certain extreme groups within the Catholic Church???
In order to help us, Jesus prays for us and for all Christian believers, whatever their Christian denomination, that the love with which the Father loved him may be in us all, so that Jesus’ love for us will also be in us. Jesus tells us that he continually pours his love into us. Isn’t it the love of God, exemplified in the Holy Spirit, that unites us? Isn’t it the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that unites families, parishes, Churches? There is no doubt that locally there is a strong level of Christian Unity. Our work today is to make this unity an ever more effective and clearer sign of the power of God’s love shown to us in Jesus Christ!
by Fr Thomas O'Brien a.a