“Divided you Vanish, United you grow.”

"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business." - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869 – 1948)

Gospel Text: (JN 17:20-26)
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”

God created man and woman to be one flesh, crafting a supernatural unity (Gn 2:24). Adam and Eve sinned against God, and with their fallen nature, humanity has inherited a tendency to fracture into disunity. Before long, mankind was so wicked (Gn 6:5) that God wiped them out in the flood (Gn 7:23).

So God started over again with Noah's family, and again the human race began with unity (Gn 8:16). Before long, man's pride again resulted in a false unity, as men joined to glorify themselves rather than God (Gn 11:4ff). So God had to bring division (cf Lk 12:51), through different languages and physical dispersion.

After many years, God sent His Son "to gather into one all the dispersed children of God" (Jn 11:52). Jesus did this by ascending into heaven and, with the Father, sending forth the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Spirit started over again and reversed man's disunity. The apostles and disciples "were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues" (Acts 2:4). Dispersed people heard and understood the gospel in their own language (Acts 2:11).

Our human nature tends toward disunity. But God makes us "sharers of the divine nature" (2 Pt 1:4) by giving us the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can unite us!