Seventh Sunday of Easter

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
– John 17:20

Jesus’s prayer in today’s readings brought to mind what I have heard from the mouths of so many mothers and fathers nearing the end of their lives: they pray that their children, whom they love so much, continue to care for each other after they are gone. That they love one another, that they be united, that they may be ONE. There is no more fervent prayer from a parent than that their children, whom they love most dearly in this world, love each other.

Jesus prays for us, God’s beloved, in this same way today. If we were to look only at the divisions in our world, it might seem to us as though this prayer is not being answered. But if we take a look at our families, the communities that work together, and the cultures that value unity and oneness, perhaps we will glean some hope.

Tanzanians have taught me so many times about the value of unity. Their Swahili proverbs abound with the notion: “Umoja ni nguvu, utengano ni udhaifu.” Unity is strength, division is weakness. “Nguzo moja haijengi nyumba.” One pillar does not build a house. And a more earthy one: “Kidole kimoja hakiui chawa.” A single finger can’t kill a louse.

In Tanzania, I see people exemplify the value of unity in so many ways. I see people working, playing, and living together. Perhaps you see it too in your immediate surroundings. Unity is not standing out so as to place oneself above others. It is acknowledging the contributions of every person. It is the expressions of kinship — of being one. If we embrace unity, maybe we can learn to change the conversation: we can sit and listen, and we can be open to both sides of an issue. And in doing so, we practice the love that Jesus prays that we achieve.

Jesus’s Ascension is not a final goodbye. But it is encouragement for us to engage in another way of being, becoming more and more united with God and with one another in the wake of Jesus’s physical departure from Earth. Just as we are loved by God and are changed by that love, so when we love each other do we and the beloved change. We are invited into new lives, new beginnings, and new potentials. Potential to be whole. Potential to be ONE.