When
love has entirely cast out fear, and fear has been transformed into
love, then the unity brought us by our savior will be fully realized,
for all men will be united with one another through their union with
the one supreme Good. They will possess the perfection ascribed to
the dove, according to our interpretation of the text: One alone is
my dove, my perfect one. She is the only child of her mother, her
chosen one (Song of Songs 6:9).
Our
Lord’s words in the gospel bring out the meaning of this text more
clearly. After having conferred all power on his disciples by his
blessing, he obtained many other gifts for them by his prayer to the
Father. Among these was included the greatest gift of all, which was
that they were no longer to be divided in their judgement of what was
right and good, for they were all to be united to the one supreme
Good.
As
the Apostle says, they were to be bound together with the bonds of
peace in the unity that comes from the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:3).
They were to be made one body and one spirit by the one hope to which
they were all called. We shall do better, however, to quote the
sacred words of the gospel itself. I pray, the Lord says, that they
all may be one; that as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, so
they also may be one in us (John 17:21).
Now
the bond that creates this unity is glory. That the Holy Spirit is
called glory no one can deny if he thinks carefully about the Lord’s
words: The glory you gave to me, I have given to them (John 17:22).
In fact, he gave this glory to his disciples when he said to them:
Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).
– Saint
Gregory of Nyssa
