The greatest gift of all

When love has cast out fear from our souls completely, and all fear in us has been transformed into love, then the unity which is the gift of our Savior will be fully realized among us, because we will all be united with each other through our union with the one supreme Good. Following his ascension, after conferring all power on his disciples by his blessing, our Lord obtained many other gifts for them by his prayer to the Father. Among these was the greatest gift of all, which was that they were no longer to be divided in their judgment about what was right and good, because 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. They were to be made one body and one spirit by the one hope to which they were all called. We shall do well, 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.”

– from a homily of Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)