When Jesus offered His prayer to the Father in Jn.

17:21 “Ut unum sint”, he was praying for unity among his
believers. God’s very desire was to gather His scattered people and everyone to unity. This was vividly seen
in the life of the chosen people when He constituted them to be his own and made a covenant with them (cf.
Ex. 6, 7). It was in this episode that reveals God’s unconditional love which benefits mankind to be drawn into
communion with Him through Christ who is the new and eternal covenant (cf. Heb. 9, 15). But not only that,
when God became human like us in Jesus Christ, He showed his oneness with us by sharing in all aspects of
our humanity except sin, so that we may in turn share in His divinity. And this is what our faith tells us, in our
Catechism it is vehemently expressed, “The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":
For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering
into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God… For the Son
of God became man so that we might become God… The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers
in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods”(CCC #460). Moreover,
Christ’s becoming like us was to gather into one the scattered children of God (cf. Jn. 11, 51-51). Thus, it is in
this manner that the Church carries on the mission of salvation through its union with Christ, and by so doing,
mankind will share unity with Christ and the Father. However, the source from which the unity of the Church
flows is the intimate unity of the divine Trinity. Jesus when praying to the Father ‘that they may all be
one…even as we are one’ (Jn. 17:21-22), has opened new horizons closed to human reason by implying that
there is a certain parallel between the union existing among the divine persons and the union of the sons of
God in truth and love (cf. The Navarre Bible, Text and Commentaries). Hence, the priestly prayer of Jesus
particularly invites us to reflect on the pressing challenge of compelling ourselves to an ever-deeper unity with
the divine Trinity and the impending mission of committing ourselves to foster fraternal communion with one
another. It is in this spirit that the community of St. John the Evangelist School of Theology adapted the theme
for its Formation year 2017-2018 the priestly prayer of Jesus, “That all may be one”.
“That all may be one”. Here emerges Jesus’ dream for unity which should exist in all communities. Unity is a
critical aspect of Christian life and as priests later on, the enormous challenge set before us is to break the
horror of indifference and hate which plagues even our own seminary community. Despite of the conflicts and
tensions that have arose and may arise, we need not to forget that we are to foster unity with one another. Here
we see the Psalms resounding loudly, “Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum habitare fratres in unum- Behold,
how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity”. But how can we attain unity despite of our diversity?
It is by loving. Only by loving can we conquer the differences and divisions we have for each other. Every
time we choose to love, it is the time we answer to Jesus’ prayer. People exclaimed during the time of the first
Christians, “See how they love one another!” Hence, the academic year helped us deliberately consider that
unity is oneness with God through one another. We need to desire unity in a manner that God had willed it.

“That all may be one”. If Jesus was praying for our unity then he is also somehow recognizing that divisions
will happen within us. However, we are being drawn into the mystery of the divine Trinity when Jesus prays
that we would be one as He and the Father are one so that our oneness would be the revelation of God’s
presence into the world. I believe that the whole formation year has become fruitful for all of us, since we
hurdled all the differences we have. I am convinced that we have embodied the wish of the Lord not to live in
a community full of division, boundaries and competition where the idea of winning someone has to loose, but
a place where forgiveness and love has dominated over and above. Though the formation year was not perfect
as it seemed, what is important is on how we establish rapport with our brother seminarians, the formators and
the auxiliaries. Again, Jesus did not pray that differences should be eliminated but instead he prayed for oneness
and unity. It just only shows how He wished to put vibrance even in our diversity. Unity is hard but it only
takes an incredible amount of love and determination in order to persevere.
Finally, I would like to extend my prayerful congratulations to the whole SJEST community for dreaming
together, journeying together, and overcoming tribulations together. We have surpassed another rigorous
formation year because we have supported one another, in as much as we are aware of the compass of the year,
“that all may be one”. Thank you everyone for showing that our strength is in our unity!

I also would like to thank our dear Archbishop, His excellency John F. Du, and the seminary formators who
played a pivotal role in the formation of us seminarians. We could not have done this without your fatherly
efforts! Thank you for patiently molding us to become priests who only aspires for the things of God and for
God Himself. You have made us love our seminary formation and much more our vocation to the priesthood,
in a manner we had never loved it before.

To the graduates of the St. Augustine Class batch 2018, you have finally reached the end of your seminary
formation. Thank you for the fraternal bond you shared with us all throughout your theologate.