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RECOGNISING OUR UNITY
John 17:20–26
One of the deepest desires of Jesus’ heart was that we might all be one. For Him, closeness to God could not be separated from closeness to one another. In His great priestly prayer at the Last Supper, Jesus first prayed for Himself, asking the Father for strength to endure the ordeal of the Cross. Then He prayed for His immediate disciples - those who had walked closely with Him. Finally, His prayer reached across centuries and continents, embracing all who would come to believe in Him through their word. His primary plea? “That they may all be one.” Four times in just a few verses, He repeated that same longing. Clearly, unity was a deep and abiding concern for Our Lord.
Jesus prayed that His followers would be united, not just with each other, but also with all disciples through time. Sadly, the Church He founded has become divided into countless denominations. Trying to bring them back together often feels as hopeless as trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And if each group insists on being the only true Church, what chance do we really have of unity?
But when Jesus prayed, “Father, may they be one as we are one,” what exactly did He mean? Some suggest He was asking that His followers remain one single organisation. While that’s understandable, human experience shows how difficult it is for any large group to agree on much of anything. And besides, people can belong to the same organisation and still hold one another in contempt.
We see it often: - Members of the same Church who refuse to speak to one another; - Siblings raised in the same home who are now estranged;
– Married couples whose lives are filled with tension and bitterness;
– Colleagues who share the same workspace but barely offer a word.
Clearly, unity involves more than structures or shared labels. When Jesus prayed for unity, He had something far deeper in mind.
The model He gave was His own unity with the Father - a unity not based on structures or rituals, but on shared love, mutual understanding, and perfect harmony of heart and will. Jesus and the Father are one not organisationally, but spiritually. This is the kind of unity Jesus longed to see among His followers.
Human nature being what it is, we’ll never all think alike or feel the same. Jesus, ever the realist, surely knew that. But He also knew we could do better than we are now.
It may well be that Jesus was praying not for us to achieve unity, but to recognise the unity that already exists among us. We already share one Father in Heaven. Jesus is already our Brother. As St. Paul reminded the divided Christians at Ephesus:
"Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”
Paul didn’t urge them to invent unity. He simply reminded them of the unity they already had in Christ.
Jesus’ faith rested on two great convictions:
First, that there is only one God. That truth shaped His entire life and mission.
Second, that every person is a child of that one God - and therefore of immense value.
These convictions break down all the walls we so easily build. Yet today we still label and divide: male and female, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, educated and uneducated. Then religion comes along and adds even more labels: Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist… and on it goes.
The spiritual, moral, and social cost of such divisions is tragic.
But Jesus saw beyond them. He reached beneath the surface and saw every person as a beloved child of God, a member of the same human family. That is how we must learn to see one another too.
Jesus didn’t create unity, He recognised it. He saw it as a truth, a fact, a gift from the Father. And He prayed that we might open our eyes to see it too, accept it, and live it.
May His prayer become ours today: “Father, may they be one in Us, as You are in Me and I am in You.”
I am a Capuchin Franciscan priest who wants to spread the Gospel of the Lord.
