The Father sends the Son to humanity precisely '

so that the Son may draw all humanity into the relationship that exists between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Sts. Marcellinus & Peter, martyrs 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11

The next day the comman­der

Wanted to know for certain the charges the Js were making against Paul. So he released him from prison and called together the High Priest and the whole Council; and they brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Paul knew that part of the Council were Sadducees and others Pharisees; so he spoke out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee. It is for the hope in the res­ur­rection of the dead that I am on trial here.”

 At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the whole assembly was divided.  For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection, nor angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things.

 Then the shouting grew louder, and some teachers of the Law of the Pharisee party protested, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel has spoken to him.”

 With this the argument became so violent that the commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He therefore ordered the soldiers to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him back to the fortress.

That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, “Courage! As you have borne witness to me here in Jerusalem, so must you do in Rome.”

 

Ps 16:1-2a & 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Keep me safe, O God, you are my hope.

 

 ＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊ 

John 17:20-26

I pray not only for these but also for those who through their word will believe in me.  May they all be one as you Father are in me and I am in you. May they be one in us; so the world may believe that you have sent me.

 I have given them the Glory you have given me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity and the world shall know that you have sent me and that I have loved them just as you loved me.

 Father, since you have given them to me, I want them to be with me where I am and see the Glory you gave me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

 Righteous Father, the world has not known you but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.   As I revealed your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I also may be in them.”

  Gospel Reflection：

Failing Christ’s Prayer

“Mary they all be one as we are one.” Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers. Not just a simple unity, but a unity patterned after that of the Father and Jesus themselves! Further, he hoped that it would be by this unity that the world would believe in him.

Even after 2,000 years, unity of all believers is still a dream. Have we miserably failed Christ’s desire? It is high time we brought ecumenical unity out of a nominal weeklong concern in the month of January and made it a daily central project.

As Cardinal Walter kasper reminds us, ecumenism is the new Pentecost that is waiting to happen, if only we work towards it! Not a unity as we prefer, but a “unity as God wills, when he wills, and by whatever means he wills,” as famously prayed Fr. Paul Couturier, one of the initial protagonists of the ecumenical movement. Let us not fail Christ’s prayer.