2 June 2022

Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter

One of the most powerful experiences of Christian unity I have experienced occurred while I was in college studying abroad in Rome during my sophomore year. That fall, our group got off to an interesting start as personalities clashed, unspoken expectations were upset, and all of us tried to figure out how twenty-eight people were supposed to share a kitchen that was only big enough for three or four people to fit in at a time. Yet thanks to a great deal of prayer and patience, by the time that Christmas rolled around our group had experienced a transformation, and we attended midnight Mass at St. Peter’s together and prepared two large meals in that tiny kitchen. It was a miracle of communion clearly wrought by God, and for me it helped to cement my desire to share in the communion of religious life.

Experiences of Christian unity are powerful testaments to the love of God active in the world. In today’s Gospel, an excerpt from the “high priestly prayer” of John 17, Jesus prays for the unity of those who will come to believe in him through the word of his disciples, “that they may be brought to perfection as one” and “that the world might know” that he was sent by the Father (v. 23). Perhaps we can reflect today on the experiences of Christian unity we have had, and pray that this desire of Jesus, expressed in his prayer to the Father, be realized more completely in us.