Homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 25, 2026. Theme: That All May Be One
Today is the end of the annual worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that has been taking place every Jan 18th-25th for the past 117 years. The inspiration for it came from a prayer that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper in which he made a heartfelt plea to God for the unity of his Mystical Body the Church, saying, “May they all may be one, Father, as I am in you and you are in me, may they be one in us…so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21-23) Notice that Jesus linked Church Unity to the world’s acceptance or rejection of him as Lord and Savior. That puts a great responsibility upon us and therein lies the reason why we should all be very concerned about restoring Church Unity.
What those words of Jesus at the Last Supper mean is that his Message of salvation hasn’t reached as many hearts and hasn't changed as many lives as it could have by now precisely because of us. That is, because of the lack of credible witness we have given to others as the Body of Christ. What the world has seen from us throughout much of history up til today is a divided and broken Christianity. What it has heard from us as Christians is a babel of voices as various denominations preach a different and often conflicting version of the allegedly same Gospel. So in the midst of all this confusion caused by us, how in the world are those who do not yet know Christ supposed to take him and his Message seriously?
Well, in 1908, a small group of Episcopalians in New York, called the Society of the Atonement, began a quest to heal the broken Body of Christ. They felt called to find the Church that was personally established by Jesus Christ himself and do what they could to share their discovery with others. They delved more deeply into the New Testament and were struck by the words of Jesus to Simon-Peter, declaring him to be the rock upon which the Church was to be built. They studied ancient Christian history and saw that whenever there were disagreements over what Jesus’ words meant or how Christians were to live the Gospel, they turned to the pope for the final answer. In other words, they saw quite clearly that the Holy Father was the bond that held the Church together as one Family in Christ.
The truth of their discovery was easy for them to see by looking at the trail of a broken Christianity all around them. They saw that they were part of this problem and so they were determined to become part of the solution. They saw that whenever the role of the pope had been ignored or was outright rejected, it brought nothing but division that bred even more division with each breakaway group defining their own interpretation of Christianity. This was why there were (and still are) thousands of different and often opposing Christian denominations each claiming to be preaching the same one Gospel of Christ!
That group of Epicopalians became convinced that the Holy Spirit was leading them to share their discovery with other non-Catholic Christians and thus do what they could to help bring about the fulfilment of Jesus’ Last Supper prayer for unity.
Knowing that the task ahead of them was wholly dependent upon the grace of God and the conversion of hearts, they started the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and soon after this they became members of the Catholic Church. They practiced what they preached. Unbeknownst to them at the time, they had lit the fire for what would become a worldwide movement for the reunion of Christians that is called ecumenism. Their very small and humble Week of Prayer soon spread to other denominations and was officially embraced by the Catholic Church at Vatican II in the 1960s. But by the turn of the 21st century this ecumenical movement had sadly lost much of its original purpose, enthusiasm and energy.
At the beginning of this year’s Week of Prayer, Pope Leo has called for a revival of this quest for Church Unity. It is a stated and important goal of his papacy. He reminded us that real unity can never be built at the expense of truth and that we do not seek unity through compromise, but through conversion— beginning with ourselves. He asks first of all that we each make Jesus’ heartfelt plea for unity a special intention in our own prayers, especially when we recite the Lord’s Prayer that all Christians share in common. He reminds us that while there can be great diversity of style within Church Unity, if we are to be faithful to Jesus’ original intention, then what we ultimately seek is the corporate reunion of all Christians as one flock gathered around the pope as the earthly shepherd of the Church.
And so what does promoting Church Unity look like for us here and now? Well, along with prayer as Pope Leo asks of us, we each really need to know the Bible and our Catholic faith well enough to share it meaningfully with others. It doesn't mean you need a degree in theology or be ordained as a minister. It just means that you need the determination to do so because the grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit are already within you and have equipped you for this task. As a parish we try to help you do this by offering Bible Study every Sunday morning and by sending out Flocknotes that teach the Faith every week. I can assure you from personal experience that studying the Bible in the light of history can be very effective for deepening your own personal faith-commitment as well as in helping others find their way into the one sheepfold of Christ.
As a matter of fact, it's the very reason why I am standing here before you today because, you see, I myself have traveled the road to Church Unity. When I was a young man I was drawn to Jesus but confused by the smorgasbord of various flavors in Christianity. I knew that I had to bite the bullet, change my lifestyle and commit to Christ but I just didn’ t know where to do that. I wasn't terribly attracted to Catholicism and as a matter of fact it was dead last on my list. And in Protestant circles I was so happy to hear people say, “I used to be Catholic until I started reading the Bible.” Because that made me confident that I wouldn’t end up Catholic.
I began an intense period of Bible study, however, I arrived at a very different conclusion! And so afterwards whenever I would hear someone say they stopped being Catholic after reading the Bible, I would reply, “Well, that’s really interesting because I wanted so badly to be Protestant but then I started really reading the Bible and that’s what brought me to the Catholic Church.” And so here I am before you today…which I think shows us that God has a great sense of humor!
Two of my Saintly Heroes...
Fr. Paul Francis Wattson and Mother Lurana White
Founders of the Society of the Atonement and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Both are now candidates for sainthood in the Catholic Church.
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