Today’s reading from the Gospel of John is the classical text of the ecumenical movement, which the Catholic Church officially joined in 1964. The movement seeks to foster complete unity among all Christians. In this reading from John, we see Jesus asking the Father to give his disciples four things: unity, perseverance, joy, and holiness. By praying to him to keep them in his name, Jesus is asking for their perseverance in the teaching he has given them and in communion with him. An immediate consequence of this perseverance is unity, which was the foundation of the ecumenical movement. Dr. Mary Marrocco, an associate secretary for the Canadian Council of Churches, writes that this movement “arose out of Christians’ sorrow at finding ourselves not ‘one’ and realizing this means in some ways we’re a broken image of the Trinity. That’s tragic, for the Trinity unites us and is disturbing because we wonder if we’re making it harder for people to find God.” I love that we are a gift from the Father to Jesus, just as we are, broken and confused, even about to betray him as the disciples were that night. Despite it all, Jesus considers us a gift. Out of this awareness, we can be moved to find that unity he already gave us and to find that we’re also gifts to each other. Saint Pope John Paul II was deeply involved in the ecumenical movement, as noted in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint: On Commitment to Ecumenism, referred to this movement as the “ecumenical gift exchange, this organic part of the church’s life and work, that must pervade all that she is and does.” Just as the Lord freely gave us his gift of love, let us unite with other Christians and share this gift with others. That is the joy of God’s gift to us.