That the World May Believe
June 5, 2025 - Thursday, Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
John 17:20–26
Today, we continue listening to Jesus’ high priestly prayer for unity. We immediately notice the chain of mission: the Father sent the Son, who proclaimed the Gospel to the first disciples. They believed that Jesus is the Son of God. Then, Jesus sent them to proclaim the Gospel to others, and through their testimony, new believers came to faith. This is how the Church has grown throughout the world—from person to person, heart to heart, witness to witness.
There are two primary ways of evangelizing the world: proclamation and witness. And for our witness to speak clearly, it must carry two marks: love and unity.
“Look how they love each other,” said the ancient Gentiles when they saw the early Christians. Can the world say the same about us today, Christians of the twenty-first century?
The second mark is unity of faith and worship. Saint Irenaeus, who grew up in Asia (modern-day Turkey) and became bishop in Lyon, France, wrote in the 2nd century about the unity of the Church in his work Against Heresies. Even though Christians were scattered across cultures and continents, he marveled that they all held to the same apostolic doctrine. He wrote:
“The Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world.”
But today, things are different. Two thousand years of Christian history have been marked by division and fragmentation—schisms, theological disputes, and mutual suspicions. Sadly, instead of recognizing our shared responsibility for this disunity, we often point fingers. But Jesus’ prayer still echoes: “That they may all be one… so that the world may believe.”
Twenty-seven years ago, on May 25, 1995, Saint John Paul II issued a passionate plea for all Christians to respond to Jesus’ prayer for unity. In Ut Unum Sint, he wrote:
“To believe in Christ is to desire unity.”
So the question is: Do we truly desire it?
Do we pray together across denominational lines?
Do we work together for justice, peace, and human dignity?
Do we long for the day when we can once again gather at the same Eucharistic table?
Let us end with the powerful words of St. Cyprian, a third-century bishop from Carthage, in present-day Tunisia:
“God does not accept the sacrifice of a sower of disunion... To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
May our desire for unity be more than a thought or a hope.
May it become a prayer, a way of life—
a witness that the world may believe.