GOSPEL POWER l JUNE 2, 2022 - THURSDAY of 7th Week of Easter

Saints Marcellinus and Peter, martyrs

Gospel: Jn 17:20-26  

Jesus looked up to heaven and said, 20“I ask not only on behalf of  these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their  word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am  in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you  have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them,  so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me,  that they may become completely one, so that the world may know  that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved  me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may  be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me  because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know  you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name  known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with  which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” T he unity of believers can never be a human achievement  resulting only from the horizontal effort to connect with  one another. Jesus prays for it because he knows that it can  only be given from above. It is a divine gift that entitles believers to  participate in the divine communion of the Father and the Son. That  is the only genuine unity, and the world is incapable of offering it or  taking it away. What does Jesus’ wish and prayer that believers may  be where he is, entail? Jesus rests in the bosom of his Father and has  never left that secure dwelling even when he became flesh and lived  among us. This is where he wishes and prays that believers will be,  for that is the fountainhead of the unity that will convince the world  of Jesus’ true origin. Lord Jesus, bind us in unity, so that our common witness as believers may convince the world that you come from God. Amen.