In John 17:22 Jesus tells us in his prayer to God that we “may be one” even as He and God are one.
To me Jesus is asking for us to wake up and realize that we are all one. That we are expressions of God working through our everyday lives. Each of us has our own issues, fears, challenges and mountains to climb. Each of us is an individual piece of the puzzle that when united gives us a picture of the whole that we are searching for.
Most of the spiritual scripture of the world talks about forgiveness as the path back to spiritual awakening and then adds that love is the universal language of Ultimate Reality. In our individual reality, we see others as separate and judge them based on our individual beliefs and conditioning. From a Universal Reality, we are one in mind body and spirit. One energy or consciousness expressing our view of the world. What we see in others is simply what we have buried in our own subconscious awareness about ourselves.
So, as we see others and react to their stance in the world, we are really looking at the buried beliefs that are also within us. A difficult awareness for each of us, but maybe a reason to exercise our God given ability to forgive ourselves first and then our offending neighbors. Maybe it will also lend credence to the two commandments of Jesus that he outlined in Mark 12:30 & 31 where he talked about loving the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.
Can it really be that simple and could it really give us the answers we are looking for?
