Meeting 3 — "That they may have joy in themselves in full"
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.. tags:: content|unity|Unity, content|community|Community, content|prayer|Prayer, content|truth|Truth, method|spatial-activity|Spatial activity, method|text-work|Text work, type|prayer-meeting|Prayer meeting

Introduction for the Animator
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Unity without mysticism is closer to alliances that do not cross the threshold of intimacy. At this meeting we want to confront the Christian understanding of unity, which exceeds our comprehension. This meeting is a direct preparation for the peak moment of the retreat which is the evening prayer.

We would like the atmosphere of the meeting to be in the spirit of the outline title. We talk about unity, which leads primarily to a great experience of Christian joy. Already here and now on earth we can touch heaven if we put to death in ourselves the hostility that is a wall between us.

Unity > lack of wars
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We begin the meeting by placing a sheet on the middle of the table with an axis and three points marked: "War", "Neutrality" and "Unity".

.. image:: os.*
   :align: center

- The distance between "neutrality" and "war" is different than between "neutrality" and "unity". How do you interpret this?

This is our paraphrase of the statement:

    “Peace means far more than the opposite of war.”

    -- Fred Rogers

Let's try to "touch" the consequences of this assumption. Participants write on small pieces of paper various "intermediate" states between "Neutrality" and "Unity" and place them on the axis. Sometimes it will be necessary to talk in the group about the placement of a given card.

.. note:: Examples for the animator: group, team, acceptance, tolerance, cooperation, synergy, synchronization, agreement, dependence, bond, compatibility, partnership, participation, closeness, brotherhood, comradeship, intimacy, friendship, kindness, familiarity, truce, peace, alliance, understanding

- What did this simple exercise give me?

- In what regions of the axis do I have the most of my private relationships?

- In what regions of the axis do I have the most church relationships?

Today we will read together Jn 17:6-19. Jesus in this fragment when he prays for unity for us says: "That they may have joy in themselves in full". Although unity contains all concepts from "Neutral" to "Unity", let's approach the conversation about it in a maximalist way.

Gift - Name and Word
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Seeking unity, let's start by reading the entire fragment for today. Let's read:

    “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

    -- Jn 17:6-19

Thanks to the Evangelist's record we can reach an important answer regarding the mission and motivation of Jesus to be with the disciples.

- What did Jesus give us?

Jesus revealed the Name to us and passed on the Word to us. Did the Jews not know God's name? They knew - Moses spoke with him face to face as one speaks with a friend. Did the Jews know the Word of God? They knew - they had the Torah.

- What does the "novelty" of Jesus' gift to the Disciples consist in?

Jesus combines at the same time the knowledge of the Word and the knowledge of the Person (Name). He combines not only in this prayer, but He Himself is the "combination" - He IS the Spoken Word.

- In what Name/Word do you most recognize God today?

- What significance does it have for you to know God by name?

Preparation of the ground for unity
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We know the Name and Word of God. Knowledge of the name/word transforms. The Apostles are no longer "of the world", but "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world."

- What are the stages of knowing?

- What does "to truly know" mean to me?

We should not understand the word "knowledge" narrowly - only intellectually. To know means to experience, to undergo transformation, to take to heart, to respond to the Word. Stages of knowledge based on the life of the disciples:

1. Hear the Word (awakening)
2. Clothe oneself in the Word (shelter, identity)
3. Be the word (incorporation, maturity)

.. note:: Such a sentence may arouse suspicion or resistance on the part of the reader. It is not we who begin to live (not only we), but the Word-Christ in us. And Christ, Jesus, contained himself in the Gospel.

"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20

Jesus says that "he manifested God's name to people". To deepen the understanding of what this means for us, we should look at it in the context in which Jesus is, and it is the Jewish context. Let's read:

    So the eleven talmidim went to the hill in Galil where Yeshua had told them to go. When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him, though some hesitated. Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. **Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh**, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:16-20)

    Commentary:
    **Immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh**. The Millennium Bible has here: “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Christians are used to treating these words as a baptismal formula to be spoken during someone's baptism. Such an understanding of this fragment raises many questions, e.g. what is that name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit? Yahweh, Jehovah? Jesus (cf. Acts 2:38; 8:16)? Or maybe yet another? Is it necessary to mention all three Divine Persons for the baptism to be valid?

    In my opinion, these questions do not touch the essence of the matter. First, the Greek eis - “into” - has the sense of “inside”, “inward”. Second, although indeed the literal meaning of the Greek onoma is “name”, “immersing in the name” (“immersing into the inside of the name”) does not describe in a literal way any performable action. My translation renders what in my conviction is the intended sense of these words, because in the Bible the word “name” means de facto the reality hidden behind that name. And although “in the name” can also mean “by the authority”, in this place such an understanding seems poorly justified, for here it is about something more than defining who is the principal of this immersion. It is possible that the Greek phrase “in the name” was meant to be a translation of the Hebrew leshem - “for, for the sake of, with reference to”, and if so, the Jewish New Testament renders its sense well.

    Father, Son and Ruach HaKodesh. This is the most emphatic example in the entire New Testament of formulating the thesis, according to which YHWH, Adonai, the only God of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, consists of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor 13:14). In the New Testament we will not find the word “Trinity”. It was invented much later by theologians trying to express the depth of what God revealed to us about himself. The New Testament does not teach tritheism, i.e. belief in three gods. It also does not teach unitarianism, which denies the divinity of Yeshua-Son and the divinity of the Holy Spirit. It also does not teach modalism, according to which God appears sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son, and sometimes as the Holy Spirit, like an actor changing roles. It is not difficult to go astray and arrive at absurdities in our thinking about God, because His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). Some Messianic Jews use the term “triunity”, deliberately avoiding the word “trinity” sounding so foreign to Jews, but grounded in Christian tradition. They emphasize by this the oneness of God, announced in the Shema, not ignoring at the same time the truth to which this verse draws attention. Generally, however, it is more important to believe the word of God and trust God than to argue about doctrinal details or the formulation of words intended to describe the nature of God.

    -- David H. Stern. Jewish New Testament Commentary

- When was your moment of hearing the Word/Name of God?

- When do you find shelter in the Word?

- Does it happen to you to "be the Word"? When?

We established that Jesus came to convey the Name and Word to us. The Evangelist also reveals to us what motivations stand behind this:

1. That they may be one even as We are one (Jn 17:11b)
2. That they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves (Jn 17:13b)
3. That they also may be sanctified in truth (Jn 17:19b)

    "The mission of the Son was to show that God's love is greater than all our faults, that although we have sinned, we are accepted: 'For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth' (Jn 18:37). We remind once again that truth in the biblical sense means: the reliability of God's love."

    -- Peter G. van Breemen SJ. "As Bread That Is Broken", chapter: "He Is Always Faithful"

Knowing (the Name and Word) leads to such far-reaching consequences! The first consequence is unity "to the measure" of the Triune God. The second consequence is fullness of joy (already on earth - i.e. Heaven). The third is becoming saints. All these "three consequences" will be simultaneous and related to each other.

Let's read:

    Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

    -- Jn 17:11b-14

Unity of which Jesus speaks concerns persons. Sometimes we think of a person as something static, defined, specified. **A person is a space**. A space that changes in time, that possesses different areas mutually influencing each other. If we were not a space, one could draw us as a point (a mathematical object without dimension). If we are a space, one could draw us as an area:

.. note:: It will be helpful if the animator while explaining this part of the meeting draws pictures for the group on a piece of paper.

.. image:: przestrzen1.*
   :align: center


Let's take sheets and draw a "metaphorical space of one's own".

- Why did I draw such a space?

If we were dots, then looking for what is common between dots, we have only two possibilities:

.. image:: przestrzen2.*
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.. centered:: The dashed line means dots in unity.

Either you are in full unity or you are not at all. However, if a person is a space, the matter is completely different:

.. image:: przestrzen3.*
   :align: center

.. centered:: The dashed line means the space of unity.

- What is unity for me that is not zero-one (point-like)?

- What consequences for my desire for unity does perceiving another human being as a "space" have?

- Where do I see such perception of unity?

Supernatural unity
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The unity to which Jesus invited the Apostles, in a certain way must be based on supernatural knowledge (of the Name and Word).

Jesus did not command anyone unity, He asked the Father for unity, because He knew that for full unity our asceticism - to love one another mutually - is not enough, but grace from on High is needed, and this is grace coming thanks to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the bond of unity. So our effort is always needed with simultaneous hope and trusting expectation that Jesus will do the rest through the Eucharist. (...)

    We thought that (...) it is impossible that Jesus entrusted such a great ideal (...) to wretched people, such as we are. He spoke of such unity between people as is in the Holy Trinity, on the pattern of the Holy Trinity, and to be more certain, he directed his prayer to the Father, which is a guarantee that this prayer has already been heard. (...) If it is true that Jesus could not address this request to any man, it is also true that no man in the world can fulfill His Testament, no disciple will manage to do it, no saint is capable of it, only Him. He amongst us will be the One who fulfills his Testament, will make of all - one.

    -- Chiara Lubich. "Unity"

- Is it possible, and in what way, in the diversity of spiritual sensitivity and different views on the same reality, in the Catholic Church itself, for unity to exist today?

Unity was not passed on to an individual, but to the community of apostles in the Upper Room. Also after the resurrection Jesus returns to the same people, in the same place... to pass on to them the sacrament of RECONCILIATION. This is a clear key!

Let's read the fragment:

    I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

    -- Jn 17:15-19

- How do the words of Jesus' prayer resonate in you: "sanctify them in the truth"?

- Is the search, striving for Truth today/can become a source of unity in a divided world?

Searching for truth is searching for a space of unity. Without Truth (Word) there can be no talk of true unity.

Mysticism of unity
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In the Name of Jesus God keeps us in this world. This name means full Divine presence.

- How do you live daily in the closeness of Jesus? What is your personal experience of signs and miracles performed in the name of Jesus?

We participate in the retreat "We are from prayer", and we talk almost all the time about unity. It is worth asking in this context:

- How do you understand the title "We are from prayer"?

Let's read Benedict XVI's statement:

    We can say that in Jesus’ high priestly prayer the institution of the Church takes place... It is exactly here, at the Last Supper, that Jesus creates the Church. For what else is the Church, if not the community of disciples who through faith in Jesus Christ as the one sent by the Father, receives its unity and is involved in Jesus’ mission to save the world, leading it to the knowledge of God? Here we really find a true definition of the Church. The Church is born from Jesus’ prayer. And this prayer is not only words: it is the act by which he “consecrates” himself, that is, he “sacrifices” himself for the life of the world.

    -- Benedict XVI, Catechesis during the general audience 25.01.2012

The Church is born of prayer for unity. Living by unity is therefore in the DNA of the Church. Living by unity sanctifies us and makes us the Word.

- In what way in your DNA (what defines you) do you find the prayer that gave birth to you?

At the end of the meeting let's read:

    To identify with Jesus, to be another Jesus, to cultivate His Life in oneself, being the living Word: this is the Ideal. And this for everyone who is around us, without difference. Everything is in this. And then, as soon as the Ideal "conquers" a soul, one should unite it with oneself, so that the living Jesus may be amongst you and so that you may find in Him the strength to conquer other souls for the perfect love of God (...). The world is always reborn in the light of the Gospel.

    -- Chiara Lubich, "Word of God"

Application
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The application is a prayerful response to Benedict XVI's request and a non-prayerful deed indicated by each participant individually

    Let us also ask God to help us enter fully into his plan for each one of us; let us ask him to be “consecrated” to him, to belong to him more and more, to be able to love others more and more, those who are near and those who are far; let us ask him to be able always to open our prayer to the dimensions of the world, not closing it in the request for help for our problems, but remembering our neighbour before the Lord, learning the beauty of interceding for others; let us ask him for the gift of visible unity among all believers in Christ... let us pray to be always ready to answer anyone who asks us to account for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

    -- Benedict XVI, Catechesis during the general audience 25.01.2012