“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.”
In the beginning of this segment we hear “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 …” It seems incredible but this came true. Today, we believe because of “their word” which was written down in the Gospels, the Book of Acts and the Epistles for us to read today.
Jesus continued “so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you”. We can make today’s Gospel profound and deep, even difficult to understand, or we can try to understand it as Jesus said it. Jesus, throughout his life, preached a message of love and care for one another, especially the poor and the unwanted. Jesus wanted the love that he and his Father shared for us too.
Unfortunately, that is not the gospel that we so often live today. We avoid the reality that evil exists in the world, the evil that opposes the love the Father and Son want to share with us. This is evident in the violence we see in the world today. From the war in the Ukraine to oppression in countries like China, Afghanistan, The Sudan, and many other nations, to the recent killing of others because they are different than us, to the killing of innocent children because evil exists. There is evil in the world, but we don’t like to acknowledge it because it is unnerving and forces us examine our own sin.
In the United States, our rugged American individualism also gets in the way. We live in a society where consumption regardless of the impact on others, or the earth, is the norm. Others become secondary to what we want or think that we need. Public leaders can claim to be devout Catholics and yet support laws and ideologies that are in direct conflict with Church teaching. What we think or want for ourselves seems to be all that matters.
We can criticize these leaders, or we can remember how Jesus handled the mob of righteous leaders who brought the woman caught in adultery to demand that she be stoned to death. We’ll never know what Jesus wrote in the ground, or if it was just his words ‘Let the one without sin cast the first stone’, but he made them look into their own lives because none of them were without sin. And the same is true for us today. We must examine our own lives for the times we have failed to follow Christ and seek forgiveness for ourselves, then pray for our leaders and those around us.
So how do we get back to the true love that Jesus wanted for us? Pope Francis gave us a roadmap on how to do this when he said, “We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.”
How do we give hope to young people, spread love and include the excluded? We start by following Jesus’ command to love others even if we disagree with them and despite what they say or do is wrong to our beliefs. We pray and care for those who need our support and live by example so others will see that God loves them through our actions. When we live a Christian life, the world will hate us and try to control and destroy us. That has been so evident these past two years.
Bishop Barron recently wrote “The “world” is that collectivity of persons, institutions, armies, and nations predicated upon the loss of friendship with God. That network will hate the followers of Jesus because it cannot frighten them, and its success depends upon fear. Jesus is about to be swallowed up by the forces of the world, but he is not held captive or entranced by them, because he does not live in himself—and hence in fear—but rather in the Father, the power that conquers the world.”
Does the world frighten us or pressure us from speaking out when we see injustice? Are we afraid that we will lose our job or a promotion because of our Catholic faith? Are we afraid to confront our sin? Are we willing to acknowledge that evil exits and holds extreme power in the world?
At the end of each mass, we pray the Prayer to St Michael the Archangel to defend us in battle against evil and the snares of the devil and all the evil spirits prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls. We are in a battle for our spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of those around us. We need to live like it.
Jesus prayed for his disciples and us, that we would love each other as he and his Father love each other. Jesus prayed that we would be one in Christ as an example to the world of love for others in spite of our differences, shortcomings and failures.
Lord Jesus, help us to love others like you love them, so that we may be one with you.
