<\/p>\n
Unity! Christian Unity is the theme of today’s Gospel.\u00a0 Jesus is praying that all people- those of His time and those who hear about him from His disciples- that all such people, might be one- ONE.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And what does He mean by being one?\u00a0 Well, Jesus says:\u00a0 “So that they may all be one, as you Father are in me, and I in you.”\u00a0 Just exactly how can we do our part to fulfill that prayer?\u00a0 How can you and I be so unified with each other that God the Father dwells in us in the same way that He dwells in Jesus, and such that we are all one harmonious entity- the Body of Christ?\u00a0 I think that Jesus was praying that not only would His disciples believe in common what He had taught them without their being contentions between them, but that they would put that belief into practice by each of them complementing each other\u00a0 In going forth and Baptizing all nations.\u00a0 Jesus is advocating the kind of teamwork one sees in a well- coached sports team.\u00a0 There, as an ideal, each person works selflessly and tirelessly for the common goal with all the other teammates.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now in our first reading, we have a perfect example of the lack of such unity among “believers” in this World as Paul uses a clever ruse to escape his captors.\u00a0 He pits the Sadducees (who don’t believe in the Resurrection) and the Pharisees (who do believe in it) against each other.\u00a0 But the Jews, whether Pharisees or Sadducees, had so much more in common with each other than they had differences; especially when comparing the differences between themselves \u00a0and the Romans or the Egyptians or the Greeks.\u00a0 That’s what makes the example in this reading so fascinating when it is paired with the Gospel call for unity.\u00a0 Because these two factions within the Jews were anything but unified- they were ready to tear each other apart.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is no different today with us, is it- Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. all share so much of the same Faith, and yet, we are hardly unified?\u00a0 But before we can deal with the interdenominational unity problem, we must look within, because, indeed, our unity must begin “at home”- right here in our Parish.\u00a0 Some of us are not joiners- our Faith is expressed as an individual thing.\u00a0 Other folks are involved in one or more ways in Parish Groups.\u00a0 We have prayer groups, men’s groups, ladies groups, social action groups, and all kinds of educational groups.\u00a0 While each individual and each of these groups may be doing great work, the question remains- are we all working together as the unified body of Christ? \u00a0\u00a0And can we do that better- develop our unity?\u00a0 There are several things we need to get to the kind of unity Jesus is talking about.\u00a0 First, we need the inspiration of the Holy Spirit- and that is coming shortly at Pentecost.\u00a0 Second, we need an attitude that accepts that “I don’t have the answer; but rather, we have the answer”, because no matter how directed and fruitful we are as individuals or groups, God needs all of us to build the body of Christ.\u00a0 Lastly, we need Love, a real love expressed towards each other.\u00a0 Indeed Jesus ends his prayer this way, as he says:\u00a0 “That the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.” \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of 7th Week of Easter Acts 22: 30, 23: 6-11; John 17: 20-26 Dc. Larry Brockman Unity! Christian Unity is the theme of today’s Gospel.\u00a0 Jesus is praying that all people- those of His time and those who hear about him from His disciples- that all such people, might be one- ONE.\u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}