Our call to Unity

If there's one thing that always strikes me about the gospel of John, it is the fact that during the passion, we see a very different side to Jesus than what is portrayed in the other gospels. While the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke show us the brutality of the passion, and how much Christ suffered out of love for us, John depicts something quite different. 

In the gospel of John, we see a very calm and collected Jesus during his passion. For one, when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane with his apostles, he did not sweat blood, nor did he ask his father to remove the cup of suffering from him if it were his will. In fact, you don't even have Judas coming up to kiss Jesus to signal the authorities to arrest him. Instead, we see Jesus give himself up on his own accord. John shows us that as much as Jesus did suffer the brutality of the passion, Jesus was in control. Jesus gave his life for us on his own accord, and he did so out of love. 

It's interesting that the gospels for the last three Sundays have been given to us from the gospel of John, and in the midst of the Easter season, we are given the account of Jesus' time with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. We see a very calm and collected Jesus, and instead of praying for the strength to endure the brutality of the passion, John gives us a Jesus telling his disciples his final message before they abandon him. And this message is basically Jesus telling his disciples how they should live their lives when he goes back to his Father. It is also for us, the disciples of today, and we are also told how we ought to be living our lives as disciples of Christ in this day and age. 

Two weeks ago, we heard of the parable of the vine and branches. Jesus tells us that he is the vine, and that we are the branches. And he invites us to remain in him and to bear fruit that will last. 

 

Last week, we have Jesus asking us to remain in him again. And he asks us to do so by keeping his commandments, and he gives us his commandment to love one another as he has loved us. 

 

Yesterday, we have Jesus praying for his disciples, that's us! He prays for his father to keep us true to his name, so that we may be one, just as he and the father are one. 

 

What has Jesus been saying to us in the last three weeks? If there’s one constant theme that keeps coming up, it’s the theme of Unity. He asks all of us to remain in him in the last two weeks, and he asks us all to love one another. And more importantly, he prays for us all to be ONE, just as he and the Father are one. In fact if you read the end of John Chapter 17, which is where this weekend’s gospel is taken from, you’d see Jesus also praying for those who will come to believe in him through his apostles. He actually prays for the Christians that would come, for you and me. And he prays for us to be one. 

 

It’s quite sad to be very honest that in this day and age, if there’s anything that’s brutally true about Christianity, it’s the fact that we are far from being united. Today, we have more than 30,000 denominations of Christianity, because we have more than 30,000 different opinions. And while we have to admit that we were not faultless for the reformation, due to corrupt leadership, the fact remains that we still aren’t anywhere near being united. In fact, the reason for most new denominations is the fact that there are a group of people who disagree with what their previous denomination taught, and they decide to do their own thing. 

 

But even if we put our brothers and sisters from the other denominations aside, we have to admit that within the Catholic Church, where the word Catholic stands for universal, we also aren't exactly united. For instance, when it comes to the teachings of the faith which are not easy to comprehend, like our Church’s teaching on Same-Sex Marriage, Divorce, Contraception, many of our Catholics when they disagree, they completely disregard what the Church says, because we think that we know better. We seek to be understood, rather than to understand. 

 

When it comes to the Liturgy, which is supposed to be the very thing that unites us as Christians, and the thing that unites us to the divine, we also aren’t exactly united either. There are people who push for the return of the Tridentine Mass, and they think that Vatican II was nothing more than the Church’s liberal reaction to a changing world, and that the Mass of today has lost it’s sense of reverence. And on the other hand, we also have lay Catholics and even priests who take Vatican II out of context and allow for liturgical abuse, and that’s really what causes the Church to lose it’s sense of reverence towards the sacred. 

 

And even when it comes to our relationships, we probably aren’t united as we ought to be either. For one, how do we treat those who are difficult to love? How do we love those who have a difference in opinion, or who may have hurt us? Do we still live out Jesus’ commandment to love one another as he has loved us? 

 

In our communities, do we make the effort to stay in touch with one another, especially given the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic, and we can’t meet as a big group on a regular basis. Do we continue to reach out to one another? Probably not. And I must admit that in my community, I too am guilty of this. 

 

I think it’s safe to say that we aren’t so united after all, and that generally, it is due to our own pride and egos. However, the good news is that because of the Holy Spirit which came upon the apostles at Pentecost (which is coming), and because of our common baptism, we have the capacity to do something about it. The Holy Spirit wills nothing less than what Jesus wills for us. 

Jesus wills for us to be united with one another, and to be united in his love for us. How will we respond to his will?