That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,[a] so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The above version is traditionally the verse cited when calls are made for Christian unity and it was one that Pope Francis took up at his Angelus message on January 25th, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. The Angelus is a prayer that Catholics pray at noon to remember the incarnation of Jesus.
During his message, Francis called for the unity of Christians saying that “Jesus wants us to be united”.
After his remarks about Christian unity, he went beyond saying that Christians should become united as one church and should also reach out to those in need particularly on the peripheries of society. “I express my closeness to all the people who suffer from this disease, as well as to those who care for them, and to those who struggle to remove the causes of the disease, that is, living conditions unworthy of man. Let us renew our commitment of solidarity to these brothers and sisters, ” he said.
This is an important step that we need to remember because while it is easy for us to doing this with words or to invite a colleague or a friend to Mass, it can be much harder to go out and meet people in the world. It can be particularly hard if the people we need to reach out to are people we don’t like or people who are may be homeless or struggling with a chronic disease or addiction. But if we are to live out Christian unity in the middle of the world, we need to reach out to everyone regardless of where they are.
At the end of the message, the Pope along with two teenagers from Italy’s Catholic Action move released doves from his studio window onto St. Peter’s Square.
Here’s the video of Pope Francis’ full Angelus message (in Italian):
Reaching Out to the Peripheries 