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| Love & Respect |
Jesus prayed to the Father “so that they may be one” (
John 17:1-11). Love your neighbor but vilify and disrespect the sinner and those who believe different doctrines? That’s the contradiction that some Christians live. A former homosexual work-colleague asked if he was my son, how would I react if he told me he was gay? I tried to honor his humanity even though some treated him as a joke. I insisted that we don’t have to agree on all of life’s issues to show each other love AND respect. Respect is often absent from the halls of government to the street. Yet, how can we say we love each other if we don’t respect each other as God’s creatures? We don’t have to agree on everything, but at least in the Church, we agree that Jesus taught love.
Was Jesus’ prayer “so that they may be one” (John 17:1-11) a total failure? Could it be that our divisions are an illusion of our own minds? Could it just be that western Catholics and Protestants along with Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians are already united in spiritual terms, if not in worldly circumstances? Could it be that because we all believe the teachings of Jesus, that in essentials we are one? Could it be that what divides us is as unimportant to God as we delude ourselves that it is important to us? Could it be that we are one in Jesus? We are first of all Christians. Of course the rest of that prayer was “so that they may be one as we are one.” That kind of perfect unity is only possible if it includes eternity.
