Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
While on earth, Jesus himself was the focal point of unity for his disciples. Jesus shared with them the word he himself received from the Father, which led to the world hating his disciples as it first hated him. His word transformed them so that they no longer belonged to the world but rather to Jesus and his Kingdom. It was for this reason that they were particular targets of the Evil One. They were the ones with the most potential to do good and oppose his malicious intentions. But even though they were the biggest targets for the devil, save for Jesus himself, they were also the safest from his schemes because of Jesus. When the devil tried to tempt them to disunity, to incite them to jostle for the title of the greatest, the words of Jesus humbled them and allowed them to remain together with him and with one another. The words which made the disciples the greatest targets of the enemy were also their greatest source of strength and protection.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
Now Jesus said he would cease to be present to the world in a visible way. This meant that the way he could be a source of unity, strength, and protection, would necessarily have to change. He left them his word and example to imitate. But he knew that more was necessary. And so he made his prayer, and continues to make his prayer, that the Father would keep the disciples in his name, saying "Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one". The response to this prayer was a something even better than the physical proximity of Jesus: the Holy Spirit.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (see Ephesians 4:1-3).
It was the Spirit who was the source of unity in the Church. He accomplished this by reminding disciples of the words of Jesus and guiding them into all truth. There could perhaps be strategic alliances without truth, but not real unity. The only alternate options to the truth of God were the lies of the devil. Those lies always led to disunity, schism, and division. The world's hatred of the truth of Jesus would always lead to situations like that which Paul feared for the flock at Ephesus:
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,
and they will not spare the flock.
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth
to draw the disciples away after them.
Jesus needed a Church that was not just curious about the truth, nor even just committed to it, but rather consecrated in it. That is, they were meant to be set apart by and for the truth. The point was not that they become adversaries of the world, but rather that they become able to go to the world and help it with the teaching and the love of Christ. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, Jesus, into the world in order to save it. To fulfill this mission Jesus constantly lived under the protected anointing he received from His Father, constantly faithful to his word and will. He set himself apart from anything that was not consistent with that will, consecrating himself for the sake of those whom he came to save. Doing so opened the way that his followers in turn could walk in unity and truth, safe from the snares of the devil, seeking to love and to save the world just as they first saw and learned from Jesus. Now that Jesus was in heaven, what they had previously learned through his example would now be present in them through the consecration of the Holy Spirit, the response of the Father to the eternal prayer of Jesus for his Church. And so, together we pray: Come Holy Spirit!
No comments:
Post a Comment