That They May All Be One

That they may all be one! What a beautiful sentiment expressed by our Lord during his Last Supper. Hours before Jesus would undergo his passion and death, he prayed for unity. Unity is a word that is often used without much context or explanation, especially in our modern world. There are many attempts to create a false unity; a unity not based on truth, but on ignoring the truth and papering over it. If we are to work towards true unity on this side of heaven, we must first understand what it means. Jesus provides us with a glimpse of that unity in this Gospel.

Gospel - John 17:20-26

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:

"Holy Father, I pray not only for them,

but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

so that they may all be one,

as you, Father, are in me and I in you,

that they also may be in us,

that the world may believe that you sent me.

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one,

I in them and you in me,

that they may be brought to perfection as one,

that the world may know that you sent me,

and that you loved them even as you loved me.

Father, they are your gift to me.

I wish that where I am they also may be with me,

that they may see my glory that you gave me,

because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,

but I know you, and they know that you sent me.

I made known to them your name and I will make it known,

that the love with which you loved me

may be in them and I in them."

Scriptural Analysis

Jesus opens this section of his prayer by noting that it includes not only his first group of disciples but also all who will come to believe in him because of them. In essence, all believers. This implies that the mission of the disciples will be to spread the message of Jesus, which will be seen in the Great Commissioning in Mathew’s Gospel. Jesus has given the disciples the Father’s word, which is himself.

Jesus then prays that his disciples may be one. This does not simply refer to the first disciples, but to all disciples, both present and future. That is because the communion that his disciples share in is the very communion of the Father and the Son. This invisible participation in this unity is manifested in the bonds of faith and love in the Church. A strong and vibrant Church united in faith and unity is the visible sign of the unity of the Father and the Son. The unity of believers stems from the unity of the Father and the Son, a unity that has been passed on to believers through Jesus. It is this participation of humanity in the divine communion that is the goal of salvation: the goal of the entirety of human history. It is the unity and love of the disciples that serve as a witness to the world of this transforming love of the Father through the Son.

Jesus longs for his disciples to spend eternity with him in heaven. The disciples, and indeed all of us, begin participating in this divine communion through baptism, but it will ultimately be fulfilled in heaven when we witness the beatific vision. The world does not know God because it does not know the Son, but the disciples do because they have received the message of the Son in faith. Jesus has made known to the disciples the Father and will continue to do so when the Holy Spirit is sent to them. Through the Holy Spirit, the disciples will come to know the Father, whom Jesus revealed to them, more deeply, and their participation in the divine communion will increase until one day they are in the Father’s house forever.

Daily Application

Pope Saint John Paul II wrote an encyclical in 1995 entitled Ut Unum Sint, That They May Be One. The topic of the Encyclical was the Church’s commitment to ecumenism. In the encyclical, he addresses this topic of Unity. He says, “The unity willed by God can be attained only by the adherence of all to the content of revealed faith in its entirety. In matters of faith, compromise is in contradiction with God, who is Truth.”

In the prologue of John’s Gospel, we hear the famous words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is a unity between the Father and the Son. Everything that the Father knows has been shared with the Son, who has shared it with his disciples. Therefore, Unity requires believing in all that the Son revealed.

There is a desire to reach out and dialogue with our separated Protestant brethren. And, there is nothing inherently wrong with that, provided it is done with the right motives. There is much we share in common with them. Yet, in an attempt to dialogue and build communion with them, we must never compromise on the fullness of the truth which Christ has revealed to us. Where they have dissented from the truth, we must not be afraid to point it out. To ignore that, or even worse, to compromise with the fullness of revealed truth, does not build unity. Instead, it denies us all of the riches that Christ wants to give us. It keeps us from participating fully in the divine life that Jesus opens up to us.