A Reflection for Wednesday of the Seventh week of Easter (May 24, 2023).
John 17:11b-17. “Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: ‘Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.’”
This is probably one of the more famous sayings of Jesus. Yet nothing he ever taught has been more ignored by his followers. He prayed for unity among his disciples, unity of the same kind and to the same degree that he shared with his heavenly Father.
Sadly, division has characterized Christianity from the very beginning. The 12 disciples notoriously vied for position and prestige. St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, or Romans were composed to settle disputes. The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) convened to find a solution to a divisive issue.
The situation didn’t improve during the post-apostolic age. The so-called Gnostics contended with the so-called proto-Orthodox. Numerous groups arose: Marcionites, Montanism, Donatism, and Docetism. The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea was called to settle the Arian dispute; it didn’t fully succeed since Arian adherents continued for another few centuries.
The Council of Chalcedon further subdivided the Christian world, and those divisions continue until today with Chalcedonian Eastern Orthodox and Catholics on one side and non-Chalcedonian Oriental Orthodox (Coptic, Armenian, Malankara, Ethiopian Tewahedo, Eritrean Tewahedo, and others).
Time would fail to mention Pelagianism, iconoclasm, the Orthodox-Catholic schism, the Cathars, and the plethora of divisions in western Europe during the Middle Ages. Perhaps the most significant split in the west occurred with the Protestant Reformation, which helped sparked the Wars of Religion. The Reformation has further subdivided into countless Christian communities ad infinitum.
Thankfully, many significant acts of ecumenical outreach have occurred in the past half century. Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras famously lifted the millennium-old pronouncements of excommunication that their predecessors placed on each other. In recent years, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis have developed genuine friendship. The Chalcedonian Orthodox and non-Chalcedonian Orthodox have worked on lasting reconciliation, as have Oriental Orthodox and Catholics. Eastern Orthodox Christians have been involved with the predominately Protestant World Council of Churches from its inception. Catholics and Protestant groups work and pray together. The coronation of the Anglican King Charles III of England had an ecumenical flavor, and Charles himself is known to have an affinity for Greek Orthodoxy (his father was born in to the Orthodox Church). Recently, Pope Francis canonized the 21 Libyan Martyrs who belonged to the Coptic Orthodox Church. We could go on documenting the ecumenical efforts.
Perhaps one day, there will be sacramental, if not jurisdictional, reconciliation between the several Christian confessions. All the ecumenical endeavors are good faith attempts to be the answer to Christ’s prayer.
The most indispensable ingredient to answer the prayer of Jesus is the desire to want to. Christians can never answer Christ’s heartfelt yearning that his professed disciples share divine unity without our wanting to.
Furthermore, in order to want to be united, Christians must foster love for one another. When Christians love one another, even if we consider each other enemies (as some do), then we will love one another because Jesus taught us to love our neighbors and enemies. Through love, we incarnate our solidarity and become one just as Jesus and his Father are one.
And just maybe, the unity of our love is the answer Jesus was praying for.
