Introduction:  The great interest in today’s Gospel in particular is that it tells us of the things for which Jesus prayed for his disciples.

 

POINT 1: The first essential is to note that Jesus did not pray that his disciples should be taken out of this world.  He never prayed that they might find escape; he prayed that they might find victory.  Some members of our faith have made a somewhat controversial or critical statement saying that the kind of Christianity which buries itself in a monastery or a convent would not have seemed Christianity to Jesus at all.  The kind of Christianity which finds its essence in prayer and meditation and in a life withdrawn from the world, would have seemed to him a sadly truncated version of the faith he died to bring.  He insisted that it was in the rough and tumble of life that a man must live out his Christianity.

 

Of course there is need of prayer and meditation and quiet times, when we shut the door upon the world to be alone with God, but all these things are not the end of life, but means to the end; and the end is to demonstrate the Christian life in the ordinary work of the world. Christianity was never meant to withdraw a man from life, but to equip him better for it.  It does not offer us release from problems, but a way to solve them.  It does not offer us an easy peace, but a triumphant warfare. It does not offer us a life in which troubles are escaped and evaded, but a life in which troubles are faced and conquered.  However much it may be true that the Christian is not of the world, it remains true that it is within the world that his Christianity must be lived out.  He must never desire to abandon the world, but always desire to win it.

 

POINT 2: Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples.  Where there are divisions, where there is exclusiveness, where there is competition between the Churches, the cause of Christianity is harmed and the prayer of Jesus frustrated.  The gospel cannot truly be preached in any congregation which is not one united band of brothers and sisters. The world cannot be evangelized by competing Churches.  Jesus prayed that his disciples might be as fully one as he and the Father are one; and there is no prayer of his which has been so hindered from being answered by individual Christians and by the Churches than this.

 

POINT 3: Jesus prayed that God would protect his disciples from the attacks of the Evil One.  The Bible is quite certain that in this world there is a power of evil which is in opposition to the power of God.  It is uplifting to feel that God is the sentinel who stands over our lives to guard us from the assaults of evil. The fact that we fall so often is due to the fact that we try to meet life in our own strength and forget to seek the help and to remember the presence of our protecting God.

 

POINT 4: Jesus prayed that his disciples might be consecrated by the truth. The word for to consecrate comes from the word which means “holy” but its basic meaning is “different” or “separate” or “set apart”.  So it has two ideas in it.

 

1. It means to set apart for a special task.  When God called Jeremiah, he said to him: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer.1: 5).  Even before his birth God had set Jeremiah apart for a special task.  When God was instituting the priesthood in Israel he told Moses to ordain the sons of Aaron and to consecrate them that they might serve in the office of the priests (Exo.28: 41).  Aaron’s sons were to be set apart for a special office and a special duty.

 

1. But “consecrate” means not only to set apart for some special office and task, it also means to equip a man with the qualities of mind and heart and character which are necessary for that task.  If a man is to serve God, he must have something of God’s goodness and God’s wisdom in him.  He who would serve the holy God must himself be holy too.  And so God does not only choose a man for his special service, and set him apart for it, he also equips a man with the qualities he needs to carry it out.

 

We must always remember that God has chosen us out and dedicated us for his special service.  That special service is that we should love and obey him and should bring others to do the same.  And God has not left us to carry out that great task in our own strength, but out of his grace he fits us for our task, if we place our lives in his hands.

 

QUESTIONS

 

1. In what ways have you fostered and consciously promoted unity a) in your family b) among your friends, peers and c) in your community?

 

2. Do you pray for the unity which Christ so desired for His Church?  When you do, does it make you aware of some of the ways in which you have hindered such unity?  Can you name some?

 

3. What is the greatest obstacle you see preventing unity)(in your local Church)(in your family) (in your community)?  What would be your solution to bring about healing and greater unity?

 

 

 

1^st Reading – Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26

 

The first reading recounts the early Church’s approach to the problems caused by Judas’ betrayal of Jesus.  In this passage lots are drawn; the Spirit is invoked; and the integrity of the apostolic group is restored with the selection of Matthias.  In this process of selection, Luke pictures the Church beginning to adapt and discern the “way” through new events and circumstances.

 

2^nd Reading – 1 John 4: 11-16

 

We know John is correct when he writes about love of neighbor.  In our more sentimental moods we may be led to wonder why it sometimes seems that everyone doesn’t agree with him.  Then comes the times when our own love of neighbor is unexpectedly challenged by unattractive realities.  Perhaps we happen on a filthy, mad person on the street.  Doesn’t our sentimentality often turn into disdain?  Or an older person or parent tests the strong resolutions we have made.  Don’t we often become impatient, begin to grumble about our hart lot, our difficult circumstances – when things are not the way we want?  Christianity is not an easy religion to live.  If we think it is, it is because we have never really faced the consequences of practicing it.

 

Gospel Reading – John 17: 11-19

 

Perhaps the most immediate sign of a Christian is his unworldliness.  Something different about him sets him apart from the people with whom he rubs shoulders, his thinking and conduct from theirs.  The follower of Christ is not of this world alone.  The world does not understand a thoroughly honest man, so it does accept or trust him.  The more perfect the Christian is, the more he will be hated, as his Lord was.

 

Serving others is not easy, and sometimes others resent our service.  Nonetheless, we must make a positive contribution to serve and love others especially in the defense of human dignity and the promotion of community (unity – oneness).

 

FURTHER FOOD FOR RELECTION

 

What was his prayer for the Church which was to be?  It was that all its members would be one as he and his Father are one.  What was that unity for which Jesus prayed?  It was not a unity of administration or organization; it was not in any sense an ecclesiastical unity.  It was a unity of personal relationship.  We have already seen that the union between Jesus and God was one of love and obedience.  It was a unity of love for which Jesus prayed; a unity in which men loved each other because they loved him; a unity based entirely on the relationship between heart and heart.

 

Christians will never organize their Churches all in the same way. They will never worship God all in the same way. They will never even all believe precisely the same things.  But Christian unity transcends all these differences and joins men together in love.  The cause of Christian unity at the present time, and indeed all through history, has been injured and hindered, because men loved their own ecclesiastical organizations, their own creeds, their own ritual, more than they loved each other.  If we really loved each other and really loved Christ, no Church would exclude any man who was Christ’s disciple.  Only love implanted in men’s hearts by God can tear down the barriers which they have erected between each other and between their Churches.

 

Further, as Jesus saw it and prayed for it, it was to be precisely that unity which convinced the world of the truth of Christianity and of the place of Christ.  It is more natural for men to be divided than to be united.  It is more human for men to fly apart than to come together.  Real unity between all Christians would be a “supernatural fact which would require a supernatural explanation.”  It is the tragic fact that it is just that united front that the Church has never shown to men.  Faced by the disunity of Christians, the world cannot see the supreme value of the Christian faith.  It is our individual duty to demonstrate that unity of love with our fellow men, which is the answer to Christ’s prayer.  The rank and file of the Churches can do and must do what the leaders of the multiple-fractured Church refuse officially to do.