Use the schema explained above: Tell God about the situation, listen to God and scripture, dialogue with God as you reflect.
Step 1:
Lord, I read the prayer of St. Catherine of Siena where she asks you to forgive everyone because she loved everyone and wanted them to be saved. It is very different today. We have such a virulent polarization inside and outside the Church. Politically, each party believes the other is immoral. In our own Church, traditionalist versus progressive is the order of the day. We don’t need Dante to write his Divine Comedy because we have already designated the place in hell where the other side should spend eternity.
We need your help, because these polarizations distract us from a unity with You and with each other. We consider ourselves right and righteous and so do not want to be in union with those we deem other than that. We can’t even worship you without controversy, celebrate the Eucharist without disunity. Also the lines between politics and religion get blurred and we end up supporting things that are wrong because the group holds one particular issue that we approve.
It is hard to not be self-righteous and be angry with others when they disparage the poor, violate the widow, the orphan and the alien. It is hard when nationalism replaces patriotism – our patriotism, when it lacks inclusiveness and welcoming others becomes nationalism. I am ok, too bad about you. You told us that it was tough for the rich man to enter the kingdom. All these things indicate that difficulty.
But the anger we feel, even if we think we are right, usually brings no improvement. Relegating others to hell, or pointing out their ignorance, or calling each other libtard or redneck just makes the walls thicker, higher and deeper.
When should we speak up? It is hard to decide. When and how should we compromise? How do we talk about common values, common assumption, agreed-upon starting points? We yell about the conclusion and never examine how we got there or with what assumptions we began.
You prayed that all might be one as You and the Father are One. Please help us to at least start with our Church. Help us to celebrate the Eucharist in such a way that it not only indicates unity but actually builds it. You told us if we have something against our brother or sister we should reconcile with them before we bring any gifts to the altar.
We really need help. We have blind spots that make it difficult to interact, to listen, to forge agreement. Jesus, may we all be one with You, the Father and the Holy Spirit..
Step 2: Listen to God in Scripture
| Hebrew Scripture | New Testament: John 17 |
| Joshua gathers all the people: natives and resident aliens alike and as one affirm the covenant.
Joshua 8:30-35 Later, on Mount Ebal, Joshua built to the LORD, the God of Israel, an altar 31of unhewn stones on which no iron tool had been used just as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded the Israelites, as recorded in the book of the law. On this altar they sacrificed burnt offerings to the LORD and made communion sacrifices. 32There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed upon the stones a copy of the law written by Moses. 33And all Israel, resident alien and native alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on either side of the ark facing the Levitical priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord Half of them were facing Mount Gerizim and half Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had first commanded for the blessing of the people of Israel. 34l Then were read aloud all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, exactly as written in the book of the law. 35m Every single word that Moses had commanded, Joshua read aloud to the entire assembly, including the women and children, and the resident aliens among them.
Deuteronomy 29:10-15 Renewal of the covenant to confirm Israel as one people: so it says gathering together “your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, 11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.” 12
Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. 10 All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, 11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. 12 You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, 13 to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14 I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you 15 who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today. |
Jesus prays that all may be one within a lengthy discourse:
When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven* and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, a 2* just as you gave him authority over all people so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. 3* Now this is eternal life that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. 5Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began 6“I revealed your name* to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, 8because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,e 10and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them 11And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. 12When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled 13But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely 14I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I 15* I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 17Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth’s 18As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the worldly 19And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. 20“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21so 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 memo 22And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I 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. 24Father, 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’s 25Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent memo 26I 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.”
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Put together what you said to God and what God said to you in scripture. Dialogue.