Did you know…
. . .that the words 'complete' and 'perfect' are the same word in Greek? In this week's gospel Jesus prays to God asking that the disciples "may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one." The word translated here as 'complete' is from the root word τελειόω (teleo), meaning to "bring to an end, completion, perfection." It is from the primary root word τέλος (telos), meaning "end, aim, purpose." To be perfect, in the original Greek sense of the word, then, did not mean to be morally beyond reproach, inerrant, or faultless. Instead, it carried with it much more the sense of being whole, complete, all put back together. This phrase "may become completely one" could be even more directly translated "may be made completed in their one-ness." Jesus seemed to know that we would be incomplete without one another and without a recognition of our unity. To be perfect, in Jesus' eyes, was not to be without conflict, without fault, or without suffering, but to fully recognize our unity in the midst of those things, and in doing so be made complete, individually and communally.