Acts 1:1-11/Ps 47/Ephesians 1:17-23/Luke 24:46-53
Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai
Unity begins with “U”
Chapter 17 of John’s gospel contains the priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. Chapter 17:9-19 contains his prayer for the disciples while verses 20-26 contains his prayer for believers. Jesus did not pray for the material and financial prosperity of all believers; rather he prayed that they may be united. This prayer shows the priority of Jesus that should inform our call and Christian life. Just as Jesus prayed, we must learn to pray. Prayer should be our steering wheels not our spare tyre. The prayer point of Jesus today is centered on unity.
Jesus says; “I pray that they may all be one…” Unity is the state of being joined together or in agreement. You may not be joined together but you are in agreement, that is unity. You may not be in agreement but you are joined together; that is unity as well. That is, unity in diversity. People can be united despite their differences. Because of the actual scandal of disunity amongst Christians; many ministers are reticent about this topic. Some don’t want to be criticized or stoned. Stephen, in the first reading, readily defended his faith against the heresies of Judaism before the Sanhedrin, Jerusalem’s supreme rabbinic court. He did not compromise his faith and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ even while he was being stoned to death.
Doctrinal issues have never been an easy one even right from the scriptures. The recent case of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto shows that we still have a long way to go. She might not have spoken well, but death was not a better response. That notwithstanding, we must continue to believe what we read in the gospel, teach what we believe, and practice what we teach. Martyrdom is not suicide, rather it is heroic and worthy of emulation. True Christians are potential martyrs. Friends, even though we are not in agreement doctrinally; we can still be united otherwise. Why kill because of religion?
And for us Christians, without unity the message and mission of Christ is compromised, imperfect, shortened and deficient. Unity is a victorious tool for evangelization. Disunity deflates evangelical and missionary strength. To curb this deficiency, the Church Fathers in 1948 came up with “ecumenism”. The goal was to narrow the division among Christians until we all come to fulfill Christ prayer for unity. This attempt has been manifesting in different ways; for example World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). These councils and associations set out to challenge all Christians to relate as brothers and sisters beyond denominational divides. In addition, they are to set aside the areas we differ and come together on common ground. Christian unity is not organizational unity; it is not unanimity of doctrine, we must not compromise the truth for us to be united. Unity is love in practice and it begins with “U”. What is your attitude towards unity in your family, offices, and others?
There are two types of unity in the Bible. In Ephesians 4:3, Paul notes that we are to be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The unity of the Spirit is already a fact for Christians, but we must be diligent to preserve it. Then in Ephesians 4:13, after talking about the ministry of pastors and teachers who equip the saints for the work of ministry, Paul adds, “… until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” This unity of faith is not yet a reality, but we can attain it as we grow to maturity in Christ. In summary we can say that “positional unity” is a fact; while “practical unity,” is a work in progress.
The four main forces against the progress of unity today are selfish ambitions; gossips; pride; malice and lack of prayer. Selfish ambition occurs when one is concerned excessively or exclusively for oneself or one’s own advantage, pleasure, or welfare, regardless of others. Phil.2:3-4 says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Again, gossip occurs when church members talk about one another instead of talking to one another. In Rom. 1:29 Paul says church members who gossip others are “filled with all unrighteousness”. Everyone has experienced the harm of gossip before. Gossip destroys unity. Thirdly, pride destroys unity, it makes us not to accept our differences and our different contributions and gifts for the building up of God’s Kingdom. Fourthly, malice deflates love and wall families against themselves. Lastly, lack of prayer; a church that does not pray together is likely to fragment into special interest groups. However, unity should not just be our prayer point; it should also be our way of life. Our actions must correspond with our petitions. If we don’t eliminate these vices; unity will remain a theoretical idea.
LET US PRAY
O God, whose Son, at his Ascension to the heavens, was pleased to promise the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, grant, we pray, that, just as they received manifold gifts of heavenly teaching, so on us, too, you may bestow spiritual gifts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Fr. Paul Oredipe
JESUS prays for UNITY
“A Team that works together wins together”
The Lord has ascended to heaven, as we celebrated the Solemnity of the Ascension, a time of vigil, a time of watching and waiting, a time of grace. The apostles have been allocated their mission, to proclaim the Gospel and to extend the Church. They have been promised many gifts to enable them to fulfill their mission. Now they await the spiritual resources to fulfill their task.
Today’s gospel passage is from Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper (17:1-26) and the conclusion of the last discourse – the prayer immediately before His passion and death. When John the evangelist wrote his gospel, the Church was already divided into factions and different groups. And so, John presents Christ’s moving prayer for unity. It is often called the priestly prayer of Christ because in it our Lord asks that we may receive the benefits which will flow from His death on the Cross. He prays for our unity with the Father and that the world will recognize that God wants us all to be saved. Our Lord reflects on the purpose of His mission to us individually and to mankind. He came to die and rise again for us so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.
Jesus prayed for us before He died and He told us we would rise again with Him. All of us need to look at our lives today. Our Lord and Savior prayed that we would love one another as the persons of the Trinity loved one another. Is our behavior such that our neighbors would look at us and say, “See how those Christians love one another?” If not, why not? That is the challenge today.
One of the worst evils that can overtake the Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among believers. That there is enmity between followers of Christ today is the great scandal and grave sin against the unity of faith for which Jesus, the Lord, worked, prayed and died. This scandal of division is the worst argument Christians present to the world against themselves. We must make Jesus’ prayer our own: “That they may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may also be one in us, so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).
What Jesus is telling us is that He wants this unity as a visible sign to the world – so that the world will see and know that it is only in the kind of love and forgiveness that God has for humanity that the world can overcome its division and disunity. That it is only in the kind of love and forgiveness that Jesus showed throughout His life and in His death that the world can overcome its mistrust and enmity. That it is only in the same kind of love and forgiveness really and truly lived and witnessed by Christian communities that the world can overcome its constricting and separating borders and boundaries.
The astounding kind of love and forgiveness that can enable Stephen, in our First Reading today, even as he was dying, to pray that the sins of those who stoned him not be held against them.
Unity is not the same thing as uniformity. Jesus prayed for unity – not uniformity. Jesus did not want everyone to be exactly the same. Jesus’ choice of followers was sufficiently diverse in temperament, personality, style and social status to suggest that He found diversity a healthy, life-giving force. Certainly, Jesus was aware of difference and diversity. Just look at the apostles – the very ones that Jesus himself chose. Peter, Matthew, Judas Iscariot, James, and John. Jesus knew diversity and respected diversity – and Jesus obviously enjoyed diversity. And in the midst of all that diversity and difference, Jesus could know the real joy of unity as each Apostle and Disciple was united to Him, and in Him, by their common love and common bond.
True unity cannot be achieved in a community which denies difference. Unity is achieved when each member is different and contributes a different gift, but all are united around the same goal by mutual love. Each of us must be purified of our need to prove that we are best. We must open ourselves to others and welcome their gifts. We are called from many different backgrounds to form one body in Christ. By rising above our many differences, we become witnesses of God who allows His light to shine in a variety of ways.
Jesus wanted and prayed for a sense of oneness among His disciples and among those who would come later. The disciples were to be united by their common faith – they were all creatures of God, children of God, loved by God. All were therefore brothers and sisters in faith – united, yet very different, and diverse. And God is the center, the one who is most important.
Community is a great challenge. True fraternity is far more than mutual toleration. It involves solidarity, sharing, belonging, compassion, and joy in the well-being of others. Selfishness is a blight on a community: everyone demands that the community be attentive to them but nobody really wants to be attentive to others.
The Unity for which Christ prayed and even died for, is based on a strong foundation, a solid rock, indeed an insurmountable power at work. The power accomplishing this worldwide unity is that of God himself.
What is the root of disunity? Usually, it is pride, selfishness, stubbornness, the refusal to compromise or to sit down together and dialogue.
Jesus’ prayer for unity touches us very much. We are scandalized by so much disunity all around us. But have we shown enough effort to foster unity around us? It would be good to ask ourselves today: How do I contribute to unity in my own surroundings, my family, my community, my parish?
The strength of faith lies in its fundamental unity and the unity of those who profess it. On the other hand, the weakness and absurdity of faith lies in its fundamental disunity and the disunity of those who possess the faith. To be a disciple of the Lord is to be united in faith. Believers are like choristers; faith is like music. Only a united and harmonized affirmation of faith can produce a good symphony. Unity of faith is the most convincing argument believers present to show that their faith is genuine and true; that their God is transcendent; and their Lord is risen from the dead. Jesus knew the unity of faith will remain a delicate sacred spot on which the disciples will succeed or fail.
Our divided world certainly needs the unity that Jesus preached, died for and earnestly prayed for. And where is it going to get it? It will get it only from a Spirit-filled community – a Christian Church – a people empowered by the Holy Spirit to transcend the barriers and dissonance dividing peoples and nations – a people filled with God’s own Holy Spirit of reconciling, forgiving, drawing together, unifying all who are separated.
No merely human secular power, of and by itself, can give this kind of unity – not the United States, not the United Nations. It can come only from the universal and unifying force of the Holy Spirit, proclaimed and witnessed by us – by our Christian presence and participation in every social, political and economic institution or organization governing and affecting human life.
The Eucharist is the source, cause, expression and effect of our unity. It is the supreme sacramental manifestation of communion in the Church. Indeed, the Eucharist creates communion and fosters communion. The Eucharist brings about the Church’s unity through the Lord’s sacrifice and by communion in his body and blood. This unity, however, absolutely requires full communion in the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments and ecclesiastical governance.
As source and manifestation of communion in the Church, the Eucharist “demands to be celebrated in a context where the outward bonds of communion are also intact. It requires that the bonds of communion in the sacraments, particularly in Baptism and in Priestly Orders, be real. It is not possible to give communion to a person who is not baptized or to one who rejects the full truth of the faith regarding the Eucharistic mystery.
Christ is the truth and He bears witness to the truth (Jn 14:6; 18:37); the Sacrament of His body and blood does not permit duplicity.” We all “eat” the same person, not only the same thing; we all are in this way taken out of our closed individual persons and placed inside another, greater one. We all are assimilated into Christ and so by means of communion with Christ, united among ourselves, rendered the same, one sole thing in him, members of one another. To communicate with Christ is essentially also to communicate with one another. We are no longer each alone, each separate from the other; we are now each part of the other; each of those who receive communion is “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Gn 2,23).
After Our Father, shortly before Communion, we pray thus: “and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom where you live forever and ever.”
This is the exact same prayer that Jesus prayed. I can only implore you: let us pray it; let us celebrate it; and most especially, let us live it and witness it as a visible sign to the world so that, as Jesus says, their unity may be complete. We are all one body, wrote the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 4:4).
Unity does not just happen; we have to work at it. Instead of concentrating on what divides us, we should remember what unites us: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.
The prayer of Jesus makes us aware of how dear the issue of unity is to His heart.
Have you learned to appreciate people who are different from you? Can you see how their differing gifts and viewpoints can help … as it does God’s work?
May the Spirit of unity encourage us and give us the strength to be instruments of unity wherever we are and in this way contribute our share in bringing to fulfillment Christ’s greatest desire: that all may be one.
Learn to enjoy the ways we members of Christ’s body complement one another.
Remember that UNITY begins with “U”
Prayer:
“Lord God, have mercy on your people and heal the divisions in the body of Christ. May all Christian people throughout the world attain the unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of his sacrifice. Renew in us the power of the Spirit that we may be a sign of that unity and a means of its growth. Increase in us a fervent love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
