This final week of the Easter season before we reach Pentecost, is marked as the week for Christian Unity. It is a call for us to join with all our Christian brothers and sisters across the world as we look forward to the festival of the coming of the Holy Spirit among us, and the birth of the Church. But it is also a clarion call to find a way forward to peace; peace with our brothers and sisters whoever and wherever they might be. ‘I have come that they might be one.’
Yet, it is also true that the world has never been more divided. East is divided from West. Islam and Christianity are completely opposed to one another, with seemingly little place of meeting, and Christianity is full of widely divergent groups who not only oppose one other, but at times even hate each other. And yet in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls his disciples, and us to love one another, and to be one. Indeed, Scripture shows us time and again that God blesses and honours unity. Unity lies at the heart of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons with separate identities but completely one. Unity lies at the very heart of the Godhead, and it is here that we see God’s desire for humanity and the world. Perhaps the only cure for the fractures in our world that lead to violence and terror is to heed the call of Jesus in this last week of the Easter season and to find ways to be truly one with our brothers and sisters, whoever they are, and to heal our divisions. The only way this can ever begin, is first in our families and our homes, then in our neighbourhoods, and only then between Christians and nations. When we start our thinking from the big picture of the world everything looks hopeless, but when we start small, all things are possible.
In peace, Mother Lynda
Gospel Reading: John 17:20-26