That They May Be One
This Gospel reading is probably the most perfect love letter ever written (spoken) between Father and Son. The words to the song from the movie Love Story immediately came to mind when reading it. “Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be. A sweet love story that is older than the trees. Where do I start?”.
This Gospel is a proclamation of the eternal love story that embraces our world through the love of God. Not just God, at the time of Jesus with His disciples. It is not only the love of God Father and Son and the Holy Spirit that united them. It is not even captured fully in the death and glorious resurrection of Jesus. This Gospel speaks of God loving for all time and all eternity and you and me being an essential part of that love. Jesus is praying for His father to make our relationship with God just as Jesus himself is in relationship with God. Jesus is praying that we be one with God as He is one with God.
I am going to get a little theological today. But the theology fits so beautifully with this reading. It is a theology known as Process Theology and was based on the Process Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead at the turn of the 20th century. We see glimpses of it sometimes in current writing, and theological teaching but, in an effort at full disclosure, it has never gained high acclaim in theological circles.
Process Theology speaks of God as always relational and interacting. Through all of time, God was in a relationship. This aspect of God we would tend to recognize as God Father, the Creator. We would experience the creator God as primordial, distant, and far away. This reflects the thinking that God created the world and then stepped back. He is the Creator and the great overseer of all things. Process Theology also speaks of our knowing God as immanent, God with us. Jesus is often our understanding of God immanent. God incarnate, one with us, having all the same human emotions and experiences that we do. Jesus, the one we can identify with when we experience the challenges of life.
Process Theology also makes room for our understanding of the Holy Spirit. The love of Father and Son cannot be contained. The overflowing love of Father and Son blankets the world and that is the Holy Spirit.
But there is an edge in Process Theology that causes difficulty for many in theologians and among the faithful. The real heart of the matter comes when we understand that God is always interacting with us and our world. God primordial and immanent at work and present every day in every way in our lives. God’s love is luring us to Himself.
As Jesus says in the reading, “That they may be one as you and I are one.” Now pause and breathe deeply as you read the next sentence. Process theology would claim that God is ever-changing. If we are one with God, a part of the very fiber of God, then who we are and how we are and what we do becomes part of the ever-changing face of God. We are part of a very intimate relationship. Therefore, we are not simply acted on by God, but our lives, choices, and love lived out changes God. We are active in God as God is active in us. God is constantly calling us into a more perfect union with Him.
God loves and dwells within us. Jesus is asking His Father that we might be one with them. One in heart, one in the soul, one in Love. I encourage you to read the Gospel again, thinking about God primordial, immanent, and loving us so much that we, through our loving actions and choices, change the face of God.
Please don’t misunderstand this reflection. I am not promoting Process Theology but rather exposing you to a way of seeing and interacting with God that you may not ever have heard about before. And, there is a lot more to Process Theology than I could write in this short reflection.
The only thing to remember is the overwhelming love of God for each of us. Bask in that love. It is a free gift from God.
In God’s Unending love,
Gwen
