Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
In today’s gospel, we read a portion of Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane following the last supper. Jesus said, “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.” Earlier in the evening, Jesus shared an intimate moment with his friends: washing their feet and breaking bread. He knows the disciples shortcomings and yet loves them in spite of them. Can our own relationships be open to Christ’s love?
Jesus prays for all of us, asking his Father that we would all become one as he and the Father are one. Indeed, Christ rejected superficial divisions throughout his ministry. Yet, today, all around us there are divisions—within our families, our nation, our church community. How do we deal with the differences that divide us?
We can take our example from Christ who crossed even the boundary of master and servant by performing the act of a servant for his own disciples. The boundaries of race, class, nationality, etc. on which we place such emphasis are not the impediments to unity that we may perceive. Pope Francis said in a homily in 2015, that “Christian unity is grace, not glue. Jesus’ wounds are the “price” he paid so that the Church might be united in him and in the Father. Christians today are therefore called to pray for the grace of unity.” Grace is a gift of God. While we can work for unity, it is ultimately a gift from God. Our reception and enactment of that gift is not a “glue,” as Pope Francis emphasizes, but is always tenuous on this side of heaven, as is obvious from the many divisions in our world today.
Oneness is not about eliminating differences. It is about love. Over and over Jesus tells and models that love of self-gift. As we are nearing the end of our Easter celebration, let us open ourselves to the grace of God’s unifying love.
-Jessica Gabrielli