Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 17,20-26

I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me. May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Father, Upright One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This Gospel passage reports the third and last part of Jesus' "priestly prayer." The walls of the upper room seem to broaden, and always prayer opens the heart to new perspectives, and a large host of men and women coming from every corner of the earth, waiting for consolation and peace, appear in front of Jesus' eyes. Jesus prays for this large people and asks the Father, "That they may all be one. As you, Father, 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." Jesus asks that they are a true fraternity of men and women, of the healthy and the sick, of the small and the great. In fact, it is right this unity that qualifies Jesus' disciples and makes them credible to the world. The men and women of every generation - Jesus affirms - will believe the Gospel to the extent that the disciples bear witness to mutual love. Jesus establishes a direct relationship between the disciples' love and the communication of the Gospel. Without the witness of mutual love, there can be no Christian mission; there can be no credible evangelization. We need to be more courageous about asking whether we are truly being leavening of love, unity, solidarity, and communion. The risk of individualizing also Christianity should not be underestimated; on the contrary, it is a very spread reality. This is why mission is so often half-hearted and ineffective. Those who experience the beauty of this love know that nothing can break it. Not even death. And the unity of the disciples is the Church's prophecy for the resigned world of today. There is no organization, not even the most technically perfect, that can replace the love between brothers and sisters. This is still the secret of the effectiveness of the Church's mission today.