7TH WEEK OF EASTER

Father, . . . that they may be one.

Have you ever thought about all the other people who are reading these meditations along with you? The Word Among Us is read in more than one hundred countries and eight languages. That means people all around the world are joining you in prayer right now! Diverse and scattered as we are, each of us is drawing closer to the Lord. Talk about unity in diversity!

Jesus’ first disciples were also a diverse group. But what did they have in common? Like us, the one thing that bound them together was their desire to follow Jesus. Despite their different professions, their different approaches to life, and their different temperaments, they stayed together because of their love for the Lord and their love for one another. Not to mention, they had Jesus teaching them and helping them rise above their differences. But would their unity last after he left?

That’s why, in the upper room, Jesus prayed “that they may be one” (John 17:11). He saw that the disciples’ unity would face serious threats after he was gone. He knew that his arrest would cause them to scatter but that his appearing to them on Easter Sunday would bring them together again. He knew that the Holy Spirit would fall on them and move them to band together as the Church, but he also knew that disputes would occasionally break out amongst them. They would need to work hard to preserve their unity. It wouldn’t be easy, so he prayed for them.

Jesus’ prayer wasn’t just for the disciples; it was for the whole body of Christ—for his first disciples, for us in the present, and for all those yet to come (John 17:20-21).

Even today, two thousand years later, we remain one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Still, there is disunity among believers, and we need to keep working to overcome it.

How can we advance the cause of healing and unity within the body of Christ? By making Jesus’ prayer our own. Let’s take the Church into our hearts today by praying for one another—even those who are very different from us. May we all pursue unity in our diversity!

“Father, pour out your Holy Spirit on us; make us one.”

Acts 20:28-38
Psalm 68:29-30, 33-36
John 17:11-19

WORD AMONG US