I in Them and You in Me

In St. John’s Gospel for the 7^th Sunday after Easter, Jesus is praying for the apostles and for “those who will believe in me…” But he’s not just praying for someone “out there.” He’s praying for you and for me, whom he loves dearly, and not just loves, but loves so much that he wants all of us to be one!

How can that happen? There is only one way: to be one in our love for each other!

What does this tell us about the love God has for us? It tells us that God loves us completely—totally—without reservation and that God not only loves each one of us whom he has made, but that God is begging us to love him in return!

Thomas Merton has given us a beautiful prayer that helps me come a little closer to understanding the oneness in love for which Jesus is praying:

Let your love slowly seep into my soul, quickening and intensifying my desire for union with you. Let your call to me to love you resonate within me, leaving me waiting with unutterable longing. Awaken me to the startling awareness of being in your own longing love for me.

I share this reflection in God’s longing love for each and every one of us!

-Written by a Dominican Sister of San Rafael

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