Commentary on the Gospel of
Failing Christ’s Prayer
“May they all be one as we are one.” Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers. Not just a simple unity, but a unity patterned after that of the Father and Jesus themselves! Further, he hoped that it would be by this unity that the world would believe in him. Even after 2,000 years, unity of all believers is still a dream. Have we miserably failed Christ’s desire? It is high time we brought ecumenical unity out of a nominal weeklong concern in the month of January and made it a daily central project. As Cardinal Walter Kasper reminds us, ecumenism is the new Pentecost that is waiting to happen, if only we work towards it! Not a unity as we prefer, but a “unity as God wills, when he wills, and by whatever means he wills,” as famously prayed Fr. Paul Couturier, one of the initial protagonists of the ecumenical movement. Let us not fail Christ’s prayer.
