THE SAME FATHER

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) Trappist monk wrote: “It may be true that every prophet is a pain in the neck, but it is not true that every pain in the neck is a prophet. There is no more firmly entrenched expression of the false self than the self-proclaimed prophet.”

Paul, an apostle, explains in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, what it means for the body to consist of many members – not all of equal function but of equal value.
Prophets are needed, but they need to be prophets. All gifts are by function and not by title.

As Carl Ketherside (1908-1989) once wrote: “They are all my brothers, not because we share the same opinion (and I add or the same function) but because we share the same Father.”

He also wrote: “God has no stepchildren so we can have no half-brothers or sisters. If we are in his family we are in it fully or not at all.”

It is like the lyrics in the Bono and U2 song ‘Invisible,’ “There is no them. There is only us.”

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” Jesus