MAY252023

The most obvious thing about humanity is differences — men are not women, children are not adults, different languages, cultures, nationalities. What is less obvious but even more profoundly true is our unity, oneness. The last prayer of Jesus before his passion was that we would live in our oneness. I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one. Living in unity reflects the oneness of the Triune God — the different persons of the Trinity are only one God. Our differences should only enrich our unity. But Jesus made that prayer because he knew it requires work on our part to discover the underlying unity in our diversity. We are tempted to let difference define us rather than unity. We must learn to see as Jesus saw — that every single person is a child of God, made in God’s image and likeness, graced with God’s love, all members of the family of God.