4 may: the sixth sunday of easter: the koan returns

i can scarcely do better than to quote the whole gospel:

"these words spake jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, father, the hour is come; glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true god, and jesus christ, whom thou hast sent. i have glorified thee on the earth: i have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. and now, o father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which i had with thee before the world was. i have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. for i have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that i came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. i pray for them: i pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. and all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and i am glorified in them. and now i am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and i come to thee. holy father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."

"and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true god, and jesus christ, whom thou hast sent." (17:3) in the great arch-form of john's gospel, we are nearing the climax. here he concludes the theme begun at chapter 3, verse 16: eternal life. jesus' answer to philip from the fourth sunday is repeated within this great prayer, the eucharistic prayer of the last supper, as it were. and then the intent of the prayer: "holy father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."

as i look at the claims of the church to be divided, the attempts we make to excommunicate one another, i cannot help but think we might do well to recover the use, throughout the church, of the book of common prayer's "prayer of humble access:

"we do not presume to come to this thy table, o merciful
lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold
and great mercies. we are not worthy so much as to gather
up the crumbs under thy table. but thou art the same lord
whose property is always to have mercy. grant us therefore,
gracious lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son jesus christ,
and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him,
and he in us. amen."

if we truly dwell in him, the dear son, we cannot help but to dwell in the father also.