Holy Father, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one. Josaphat Kuncevych, whose memory the Church honors today, was born in Poland to Ukrainian Orthodox parents. He became a Catholic of the Byzantine rite and a monk. As bishop, he worked faithfully for the unity of the church, a cause for which he suffered martyrdom at the hands of an angry mob. He was canonized in 1867, becoming the first Eastern saint to be formally enrolled in the register of saints.
It is highly unlikely that when Jesus prayed for the unity of his followers, he had in mind the “disunity” of the Church that followed the great schism of 1054 AD. However, it is a prayer that definitely speaks to the greatest need of the post-schism Church. The Church that resulted from the schism is not the Church that Jesus founded or envisioned. The Church that resulted from the schism is not the Church upon which Jesus bestowed the responsibility of spreading the good news of the kingdom of God. It is only when the Church will once again speak with one voice even as she pledges allegiance to only one founder, Jesus Christ, that the task of building up the body of Christ for which followers of Jesus have been summoned will succeed.
Born perhaps in the high point of the Church’s schism, St. Josaphat experienced firsthand the effects of a divided Church. As a monk and then later as a bishop, he must have seen the obstacles that a divided Church placed in the path of Gospel proclamation. He must have seen how difficult it was for to preach about the Gospel values of love, forgiveness and reconciliation when the leaders of the Church were themselves spewing hate and indifference through their writings and stance. Only one thing needed to be done, and he took the bold step to do it. The Church needed to be unified.
St. Josaphat not only believed in the need for a unified Church, but also worked tirelessly for it. He believed that the cause of the Christian faith can be achieved only if the different factions of the Church would come together and speak with the voice of Jesus Christ. But that can only happen if one imprisons the self only to Jesus, and not to the competing ideologies and theologies.
Like St. Josaphat, may we for whom Jesus prayed work tirelessly for the unity of the Church. May we take to heart he prayer of Jesus, and with him, pray that those who have been called by his name remain united in him.