Gospel of John 17:22

            It is hardly an exaggeration to say that we are living in a fragmented society; a society in which basic institutions have come unglued. Families are ravaged by divorce and separations; governments and financial institutions are compromised by greed and self-interest; the sex abuse scandals in the church have exposed it as a flawed and wounded institution.

            What are we to make of this?

            Chapter seventeen of St John’s gospel provides us with an answer to this kind of fragmentation; and it is to be found within each of us. Union with one another flows from our union with the Creator. “We are made for you, Lord,” says St. Augustine, “and our hearts are restless ‘til they rest in you.”

            Francis Thompson wrote a beautiful poem, called:

                             “The Hound of Heaven.”

It is about a restless individual who sought unity from without but was always discontent until, eventually, he found it deep within himself, in harmony with his maker.

In addressing the Father, in today’s gospel, the Lord refers to the unity of his followers as “the glory which you have given me.” Glory is the inner nature or beauty of a thing. The glory of a flower is its loveliness; the glory of a child is its innocence. The glory of the followers of Christ, is their unity. We belong to one another. We need one another just as surely as the early Christians needed and belonged to one another. What was their secret? Their secret was their unity in Christ which everyone admired, even their enemies.                                                                                   

Christ is “the vine,” we are “the branches.” He is the source of our unity, the way a vine is the source of unity for the branches.

            Everybody wants to belong; everybody wants to live in peace and harmony with one another. But, the world’s notion of unity often conflicts with the spiritual unity of the  gospel. Society has a tendency to push unity on people from outside by forcing conformity on people through laws and the will of the majority. But, what if the majority is a bunch of yahoos like the people described by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s travels? What then? Swift’s tragic and prophetic vision of society took place in Nazi Germany; it happened in the U.S.S.R; and it is happening in our society today.

            Today’s gospel offers a spiritual remedy to society’s ills and fragmentation, a path to true unity and freedom; that we “be one” as Jesus and the Father “are one.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy