Fr Joe Borg
Christian unity and a bit more
The unity for which we pray requires interior conversion, both communal and personal.
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.
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.
Popular Stories
In Discussion
2 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
M Dean
Jan 23rd, 18:22
Sadly, there is a false ecumenism, which wants to cover up serious differences in doctrine and morals. The last Council did not contradict the teaching of the Church that salvation is through and in the Church, which means that all Catholics have a duty to evangelize. Without answering Blessed John Paul II's call to the New Evangelization, people will not be saved. That is the heresy of “universal salvation” condemned over a hundred years ago by the Church. This teaching has not changed.
“The unity of Christians cannot be otherwise obtained than by securing the return of the separated to the one true Church of Christ from which they once unhappily withdrew. To the one true Church of Christ, We say, that stands forth before all, and that by the will of its Founder will remain forever the same as when He Himself established it for the salvation of all mankind. “
Pope Pus XI wrote on this in his encyclical Mortalium Animos.
True unity comes in Truth, not in the denial of differences. Thankfully, those Christians who are still following the moral and spiritual teachings of Christ are in union to a certain extent with us. But, it is our duty as Catholics to spread the Good News of Salvation to all the world. This idea is not politically correct, but it is the Call of Christ Himself, Who is God.
M. A. Dean, Co, Meath
Mr Emanuel Farrugia
Jan 22nd, 19:41
CHRISTIAN UNITY
Christian Unity is always among the Christian things that are of the greatest importance. While Christian Unity is in itself of great importance, to know what it is, is of greater importance. Christian unity is not just an ideal. Unity is spiritual, a divine given, but our experience of it is preconditioned by our openness as believers toward each other. I like to refer to that openness as our obedient response to Christ’s “relational imperative.”
All believers are the called of God. Our calling is our responsibility to respond to what we have become in Christ. Every believer has been called to be Jesus' disciple and to serve in the body of Christ. The purpose is maturity in Christ, being conformed to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The ultimate goal is Christ-likeness, or spiritual maturity according to the standard of Christ. This is the primary goal of the equipping and the unity desired. The more we possess His character and mind, the more we will experience the unity of the Spirit.
Emanuel Farrugia [TARXIEN] former student Faculty of Theology UOM