Christian unity and a bit more

Thursday’s vote in Parliament is the subject most people are talking about. I guess a number of commentators today will contribute further to the discussion of this political crisis forced on the nation by the personal ambitions of a single Member of Parliament.

What unites us is stronger and deeper than what divides us- Fr Joe Borg

I will not add my two euro cents’ worth on the controversy, but prefer to comment on an event that comes to an end one day before Parliament votes on the motion of confidence in the government.

I refer to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which started last week and will conclude on Wednesday. The week was established in 1908 by Paul Wattson, founder of an Anglican religious community who later became a Catholic.

The annual celebration is held in the Northern hemisphere in the week leading up to the feast of the conversion of St Paul (January 25), while in the Southern hemisphere, it is generally marked around the feast of Pentecost.

The celebration of this week really came of age after Vatican Council II. Since then, Catholics have grown in their knowledge, understanding and esteem for other Christian Churches and communities. Ecumenical relations have led to important theological developments, and Christians have grown in love for one another.

Various forms of collaboration have developed not just in the areas of the defence of life, safeguarding creation and combating injustice, but also in providing ecumenical translations of the Bible and the clarification of many theological concepts and traditions.

Several joint theological declarations were made with both the Orthodox and the Protestant Churches.

Catholics and members of the Polish Ecumenical Council prepared the texts for this year’s Week of Prayer, which is themed ‘We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ’.

Immediately after his election Pope Benedict made ecumenism – or the task of building bridges with other Christian churches – one of the objectives of his pontificate. Just to mention one example we note that his participation in World Youth Day was characterised by contacts with Christian and non-Christian churches.

Last Wednesday, the Pope, during his weekly general audience, said the path to Christian unity requires more than being nice to each other and cooperating:

“The full and visible unity of Christians for which we long demands that we allow ourselves to be ever more perfectly transformed and conformed to the image of Christ... The unity for which we pray requires interior conversion, both communal and personal.

“It is not simply a matter of kindness and cooperation; above all, we must strengthen our faith in God, in the God of Jesus Christ, who has spoken to us and who made himself one of us; we must enter into new life in Christ, which is our true and definitive victory; we must open ourselves to one another, cultivating all the elements of that unity that God has preserved for us and gives to us ever anew; we must feel the urgency of bearing witness before the men of our times to the living God, who made Himself known in Christ.”

In the title of this piece I referred to “a bit more”. This Week of Prayer ends on the eve of a vote in Parliament that can lead to an early election – a period of time generally characterised by controversies and divisiveness. However, even we Maltese should keep in mind that what unites us is stronger and deeper than what divides us.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt