The theme for The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ’09 is adopted from The Book of Ezekiel : ”You join the two sticks together, so that they form one stick in your hand.” (Ezek 37:17)

In 587 B.C. the country of Judah was relinquished, and most people were taken as slaves and exiled to Babylon (the area occupied by Iraq nowadays). Amid the tremendous sadness of losing a country and the family, the prophet Ezekiel, in the name of God, encouraged this group of sad people: “You join the two sticks together, so that they form one stick in your hand.” These words were to depict the unification of the relinquished Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south).

The Republic of Israel was established on the 14th May, 1948.

Of course, what had been foretold by the prophet Ezekiel of the divine state of new Israel actually came true with the sacrifice on the Cross of Christ.

The people of God who have been redeemed by Jesus come from beyond the boundaries of countries and tribes. This redemption is not merely the union of Israel and Judah, it is also the fraternity of people from different countries and tribes.

Jesus prayed to the Father at the Last Supper: “Father, may all of them be one, as you are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, to make the world believe that you sent me.” (John 17:21)

As laid down by Jesus, the foundation of becoming one with each other is to live in the Divine Trinity. The effect thereof is witnessing the mission of salvation undertaken by Jesus.

To live in the Divine Trinity is to live in mutual love. For this reason, Jesus bequeathed to humankind a new commandment of mutual love: “You have to love one another, like I have loved you.”

To love unconditionally and to take the initiative to love have become the basic features of Christian living.

The outcome of mutual love is the presence of the Lord Jesus. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name (mutual love), there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt 18:20)

The two apostles who were on their way to Emmaus recalled: “Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

When we truly live up to the Word of God, especially the new commandment of love, the presence of Jesus is felt in our heart and soul.

The church in Corinth, which was built up by St. Paul, was full of energy at the beginning but still could not avoid falling into the whirlpool of disputes: This is because members lacked mutual love.

Therefore, St. Paul said to the congregation, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:13)

The Holy Spirit can help people’s heart and soul become one. All we can do is to entrust ourselves to Him.

A few years ago, a superior of mine said to me, “It is wonderful that you try to maintain a sense of oneness among the faithful. However, the efforts put in would achieve only half of the result it should bear if there were no entrusting of the heart to the Lord.”

I was awakened by his words. In the past, I put a lot of emphasis on outward behavior of unity without the interior harmony of the heart and body. Now I spend one hour adoring the Blessed Sacrament everyday. The result is the disappearance of the psychological instability that has been with me for years. This is so because I have learnt entrusting.