May 18, 2015
Yesterday (Sunday, May 17) is a confusing day for our Church in the United States. Some years ago the bishops of the United States decided that what we had called Ascension Thursday for many years should be celebrated on a Sunday so that the wonder of Christ’s Ascension to the Father would be celebrated by as many Catholic Christians as possible. So, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated in most Dioceses in the United States on Sunday. What that means is that we do not celebrate the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. (Are you still with me?) If we were to celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter, the Gospel for the celebration would be the Gospel of John, chapter 17, verses 11-19.
I love that particular periscope of the Scriptures because it speaks about the unity of all peoples in Jesus’ name. Jesus says, “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.”
Chiara Lubich is the founder of Focolare, a movement that promotes unity, reconciliation and the spirit of love. In one of her writings she points out: “In this world we are all brothers and sisters and yet we pass each other as if we were strangers.” Too true. Even in our Sunday gatherings we often do not know the people around us. We come and we go. We cling to our own paths
too frequently, and seldom know the richness of the people around us; seldom are able to share and celebrate their triumphs; seldom able to share and grieve their losses. And yet, Jesus calls us to be one as he and the Father are one; to be one in knowing each other and loving one another.
The language of Saint John’s 17th chapter also speaks to the fact that the body of Christ has been pulled apart. We Christians are not one Church; one body of Christ. We are Catholics and Protestants; Orthodox and various other Christian Communities who believe that Jesus is their Savior, but who do not feel the need to join with the other Christian denominations. Ecumenism is the endless search to draw all Christians together through the renewal of all the Churches so that the unity that Christ wishes for all might be found in His one and only Church. One of the keys to ecumenism, though, is that unity does not mean uniformity.
Peter Woloschuk is a dear friend. We have together been doing the work of Church Communications for many years. He is a Ukrainian Catholic, and although born in the United States, speaks the Ukrainian language and worships in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. We Roman Catholics are united in our love for Christ and his Church with the Ukrainians, but our unity is not based on having the same rituals in worship. That’s unity without uniformity. And it is a key element in striving to be what Jesus asked of us when he asked the Father, “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.”