“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. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them, even as you have loved me.”
(John 17: 20 – 23)
Jesus in those last momentous hours before going to the cross prays for his disciples and for all those who will come after them as the message of God’s love and salvation is passed on from generation to generation. And what a vision he presents in this prayer. Perfect unity. Father, Son and God’s family, the heirs of salvation, the Church, working together in spiritual union so that others too may come to know and experience God’s love for themselves and thus give glory back to God Himself. The church is not a building; it is the body of Christ in action in our world, no matter what.