“I am no longer in the world but they are in the world and I am coming to You.  Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me so that they may be one as We are one… I pray not only for these but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in Me and I am in You.  May they also be one in Us so the world may believe You sent Me.   I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one.  I am in them and You are in Me.  May they be made completely one so the world may know you have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

~John 17.11, 20-23

One. It is the number that Jesus prayed for us to become: whole, indivisible, cardinal.  The number one often represents and is symbolic of unity, agreement, harmony and interdependency.  It means sameness in nature, kind or condition.  But, one is problematic for race in that there is only one category and it includes everyone. 

Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia, “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (3.28).  To the faithful saints at Colossae, he said: “Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator.  Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free; but Christ is all and in all” (3.11).  I would add that in Christ, there is no majority or minority, no center or marginalized, no insiders and outsiders, no citizens and aliens.  No one is foreign to Christ, counted numerically or categorized culturally.  But, we are all one in Christ and Christ is in all.

The name of Christ then includes all and is the name for inclusivity.  There is no diversity of souls. We are one Body of Christ as the prayer did not divide us or section us off.  Jesus prayed the same prayer for all of His members and I prayed his prayer today: Make us one as They are one.  Amen.