PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

January 18, 2008

Every year the Catholic Church joins with other Christians worldwide in a week of prayer for Christian unity, beginning on January 18 and ending on January 25. This year’s week of prayer for Christian unity is special in that it marks the centenary of the first such week of prayer in January, 1908.

Not enough is said about the need to work and pray for Christian unity, so I dedicate this column to the subject. First, it should be clarified that ecumenism is about the efforts of Christians to restore unity among themselves. Ecumenism is different from interreligious dialogue, which brings Christians into dialogical engagement with those of other world religions like Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

The Catholic Church distinguishes ecumenism of truth and ecumenism of charity. The first strives to address apparent doctrinal differences, clarify beliefs, and to the extent possible find formulations of doctrine on which common agreement can be reached. Toward these ends, high level dialogues between representatives of the various Christian communities have been taking place, for decades, and the Catholic Church has been actively engaged, initiating her own dialogues with many other Christian bodies. Grassroots ecumenical prayer and study groups have been coming together over the years to seek a deeper understanding of each others’ religious beliefs and practices. The temptation exists to try to overcome differences by compromising doctrines, but the Catholic Church insists that doctrinal ecumenism must never sacrifice the truth to attain a unity that would ultimately show itself to be false and unsustainable.

While there remain many substantive differences, much progress has been made, and there is mutual recognition that we are much closer in our beliefs than was thought in the past, when there were many disputations based on ill will or lack of clarity in the definition of such key terms as “justification”. This is very encouraging.

An ecumenism of charity involves efforts to reestablish human ties among separated Christians so that we may experience ourselves and brothers and sisters in Christ, and join in works of charity. Examples of this are the joint efforts of Christians everywhere to serve the needs of the poor and to work to end abortion.

Not to be minimized is the importance of prayer in common, an outstanding example of which is the week we now enter – the week of prayer for Christian unity.

Sadly, great obstacles to unity remain. Most troubling is the fact that, in today’s society, where relativism reigns and extremes of individualism are celebrated, we see new forms of fragmentation and a tendency to approach Christianity in a relativist way.

I refer to the idea that seems to have crept into the minds of some today that one can belong to the Christian religion in an individualized way, according to one’s inclinations and preferences, and without being accountable to established church authority and without being bound to visible unity of faith and practice with other Christians. There is witnessed today a tendency to hold that one can profess to be Christian while more or less defining for oneself how one will follow Christ, picking and choosing from among the doctrines and moral precepts of the Church which will be adhered to and which will be bent or laid aside as too incredible, difficult, or inconvenient.

This is a new and disconcerting reality, and it is seen in the great proliferation of self-starting church communities, that is, communities that claim allegiance to no denomination, answer to no authority outside themselves, are led by someone with no certification from any formation program, and assert they rely exclusively on the Holy Spirit (and usually a charismatic pastor) to guide them. There is a great danger in these very numerous communities, as has been commonly pointed out, of watering down the Gospel, giving a “feel good” message that keeps people coming back, without preaching or teaching “the hard sayings” of Jesus, which demand a conversion of life away from sin.

What can each of us do to promote Christian unity? First, we should know our own faith well and be able to explain it accurately to others, so that they may understand us. Simultaneously, we should make an effort to understand the beliefs and practices of Christians who are not Catholic. Second, we should cooperate with other Christians in the good works which constitute the ecumenism of charity. Finally, we should pray ardently to the Holy Spirit to lead us on the path to reunification, for only the Spirit has the power to bring the enlightenment and spirit of humility and reconciliation necessary to know Christ’s will and to know how to realize it. We must pray that the Spirit will lead all Christians overcome their past differences and join together in visible unity.

All must recognize that Jesus founded only one Church, and that the fact that many Christians profess to follow him, but while going their separate ways, is an open scandal to the world. Each of us must examine our conscience to see if we are doing everything we can to honor Christ’s great desire that we preserve unity. At the Last Supper, his most earnest prayer to the Father was for the unity of his followers: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are” (John 17:11).

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap