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| Unity is already there |
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| “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate!” |
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| (Mathew 19, 6) |
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Every year, from January 18 to 25, during the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”, Christians from every denominations join together for prayers and thoughts. Knowing that a visible unity is not workable, at least in the short term, we put the emphasis on the spiritual and ecclesial realities we have in common that form a reason to unite our energies to act together on the same projects. |
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A spiritual contemporary author, Irish James Haggerty, married with children, tries to go beyond. He was inspired by the words of Jesus ” Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate!” (Mathew 19, 6) to essentially say: unity between Christians is fundamentally existing. It is important not to focus on the dream of a visible unity implying uniformity and adhesion to every dogma, performing the same rites or reacting the same way to each event happening in the world…
United in Christ, we really are, we have to fix our attention on this reality. “There is only one Body and only one Spirit, as there is only one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is in all” (Ephesians, 4, 4-5). What we have in common is so much stronger, much deeper that what makes our divisions! |
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| ” Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate!” Jesus said it for a man and a woman who are married. He was answering the question raised by his contemporaries: “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?’’ The Master was sending them back to the fundamental unity expected since the origin. This answer is also for the union between the Christians. In fact Saint Paul sees in the wedding between a man and a woman the symbol of the union between Christ and his Church. |
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“Let them be one!” said Jesus at the Last Supper. We have to make one only Body. Unity is given as a primordial grace. The duty we have is not to unite but to not divide.
This new way has some concrete consequences. Unity is specifically realized in the Eucharist that assembles us. Well, the Eucharist is present in any Christian denominations, any baptized person can join it, in any church, and whatever are the different understandings and theological explanations developed in the history.
These different interpretations have unfortunately become signs of divisions and mutual misunderstanding, but it should not be to the point to prevent each of us to participate at the Eucharistic communion, this participation would be beneficial for the whole Body of the Church.
We see that by experience: if the fiancées were waiting to agree on every thing before getting married and to live together, they will never marry. To unite they need only to agree, that will achieve their unity… Then they will be able to live and be enriched by their differences. The unity is to share and eat the same bread. We want unity? Then we change our way of thinking, where the intercommunion was considered as the final outcome of a dialogue between Christians but now it will be a way to create unity! |
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| Let us reconcile between ourselves by the Eucharist, in remembering the One who offered his body to make us one in Him! Saint Paul reminded it to us in his first letter to the Corinthians, 11, 17-34. For him what is important is to stop the division between those who have and those who have not, it is to liberate our hearts by sharing truly and durably. The communion that is always in some way intercommunion becomes the place for the Christian Unity. |
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