Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Alex Muana SVD – Divine Word Seminary Tagaytay
Thursday 7th Week of Easter
Jesus prays that those whom the Father gave him will be one just as he and the Father are one.
A beautiful passage from the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians chapter 2 addresses the call for unity and wholeness among the early Christians, a call for both Jewish and Gentile Christians to accept one another as members of the Body of Christ.
Although in the earlier part of the chapter, we also have evidence of the kind of disparaging language each side used of the other, based on whether or not the men were circumcised. For Jewish Christians, this was a visible sign of their belonging to God; for Gentile Christians, it was now a meaningless custom since in Christ a new covenant has been established whose outward sign was baptism rather than circumcision.
The teaching of the Letter is clear. It was God who took the initiative, enabling the healing of humanity that previously had been split in two. God sent his Son to reconcile us not only to God but to one another. Because of Christ, God’s gift of peace and wholeness is given to us, and the old tribal loyalties that divided us in the past have no place in the new community established by God.
In the community of God, there are no citizenships, no borders, no passes, no passports, no discrimination. All are members of God’s people, faithful to the traditions and the teaching of the gospel. In the metaphor of a building Jesus is the cornerstone. Without Jesus, the community has no foundation, no meaning, no basis for existence.
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