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That we may be one!
During the time of the Roman persecution in the third century, a Roman governor in his report to the emperor observed: “Christianity cannot be a true religion, because those Christians talk about love all the time, and see how they treat one another.”
Hatred, enmity, and division among the followers of Christ are diametrically opposed to their own identity, because they disintegrate what they are all about. Jesus said: “This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another” (John 13:35). Here at St. Jude, we tell ourselves that we are like a little UN, and we give our best effort to love one another. That is what I told the participants of the ecumenical prayer service for Christian unity that we hosted last Sunday, January 15th here at St. Jude. If we do not love one another, people will not recognize who we are. That is why the current division among Christians is such an awkward absurdity.
The Catholic Church joined the ecumenical movement through the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65). It was the Holy Spirit of unity who led us to this movement toward healing and mending of broken relationships. This movement for unity - or ecumenism - takes place in various forms of dialogue: sharing of life and friendship, theological exchange, joint social outreach, and spiritual enrichment of one another. To unite, we must love each other. To love each other, we must know each other. To know each other, we must meet each other. Out of sight, out of mind. Out of touch, out of friendship. This simple relational truth has been ignored for too long. Thanks be to God, we have made some tremendous progress in overcoming misunderstanding and hatred, while developing a genuine sense of brotherhood with other Christians.
The movement toward Christian unity, however, is nonlinear, multi-focal and unpredictable. Catholics dialogue with the mainline Protestants as well as Evangelicals and Pentecostals. We made a breakthrough with Lutherans, while we experienced a setback with Anglicans. The dialogue with Orthodox Christians has seen ups and downs. The unity is the work of the Spirit and in the Holy Spirit’s own time. When we see breakthroughs, we also see unexpected challenges. Sometimes ecumenism becomes a negative term because of a perceived fear of losing one’s identity. Ecumenism is often accused and misunderstood as abolishing confessional identity and leading to an arbitrary pluralism, to indifference, relativism and syncretism.
Our task is to have an open identity, because identity is a relational reality, as Cardinal Kasper observes: “I have my identity only in relation with others, and in sharing with others…. Ecumenism must be understood as the open and shared Catholic identity, as a genuine expression but also the significance of catholicity in the profound sense of the term.”
We observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January 18-25 every year. God reaches out to us through His Word for a dialogue of salvation. We are to continue this dialogue by reaching out to others. Seeing Christ in others takes spiritual conversion and renewal, the very heart of ecumenism. May the Holy Spirit lead us and purify our vision so that we may engage in this dialogue of salvation for us and for all. Amen.
“That they be one” (John 17:21).
Fr. Paul D. Lee