Tag: <span>Unity</span>

May 20, 2021May 7, 2021

Division

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today’s readings are about unity, and its lack. On the night before Jesus died, in the midst of the agony of anticipation, Jesus prayed with all his heart and soul. The intention for which He so passionately prayed was this simple one: That His disciples be one, unified. If this is what Jesus prayed for when his ardent love was at its climax, it is what we as Christians should work for.

In the first reading, the accusers of Paul demonstrate the opposite: Disunity, strife, antagonism. And Paul is able to take advantage of this, thwarting their attempt to bring him down.

What is it that causes their assembly to fall apart? It is disagreement–disagreement not on matters of opinion, but on matters of fact. Do angels exist? Either they do or they don’t; one may vehemently argue either side; but in the end, their existence or non-existence is a matter of fact, not of opinion. Same with the resurrection from the dead.

Thus, the root cause of the disunity of this assembly is an inability to ascertain reliably facts that are important. And this inability is caused by original sin. The root cause of their disunity is the clouding and darkening of the intellect caused by original sin.

Luckily, ever since Pentecost, when we received the Holy Spirit, we Christians are completely immune to this phenomenon. We are in perfect intellectual union and agreement due to the enlightening action of the Holy Spirit.

It is not quite that way, is it? The count of official Christian denominations is disputed; some estimate 33,000, others 47,000… Christianity has splintered over and over again since the Reformation. Why? Because Christians can’t agree on the facts.

What are we to do, if the mere fact of being Christian, thus with access to the Holy Spirit, does not guarantee us infallible apprehension of the facts?

The only answer: Humility. If the Spirit Himself teaches us any lesson to start, a sort of Life in the Spirit 101, it is this: We get nowhere without humility. The Holy Spirit actually will grant us the wisdom and knowledge that we long for, if we listen to Him with a wide-open heart–both when He speaks through our hearts, and when He speak through the imperfect humans around us.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to give you a heart after His own Heart, filled with the Holy Spirit, linked to the Trinity; ask Him to shape your heart to listen like His does.

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March 27, 2021March 9, 2021

The Long Game

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The gospel tells us the purpose of Jesus’ approaching death. He will be dying for the nation, but not only for the nation; also, to gather into one all the dispersed children of God.

This glorious plan is described even in the midst of the narrative of the evil jealousy of the Pharisees, who want to do away with Jesus, not in spite of His miracles such as the resurrection of Lazarus, but because of them. We must remember that the Pharisees are truly, intensely fearful of the popularity of Jesus–not because of the power of the Romans, who prove rather sleepy relative to the Jews’ internal religious squabbles, but because of what they stand to lose. Not only their status, but likewise their wealth depends, not on some official position that they have in the community (they are not rulers), but on the religious stranglehold they exert. They have a tenuous respect among the Jewish people as experts who hold the keys to understanding God’s Law, the Law on which Israel’s welfare on as a nation depends.

Jesus constitutes a massive threat against this stranglehold, as He preaches liberating mercy through God’s gratuitous gift of salvation. The more He proves the power of His message through miracles, the more the Pharisees want to do away with Him. They do not care about exploring where the truth lives. They only care about sustaining the wealth and status that is theirs, which hangs in a delicate balance.

The irony is that the division that the Pharisees cause is precisely the one that Jesus will be healing by submitting to the death that they are planning for Him. As prophesied by Simeon, He is the “light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for His people Israel.” (cf. Lk. 2:32) He has come to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

God is the Lord of history, and His omnipotence is such that He carries out His glorious plan not in spite of the evil hearts of His enemies but through them, incorporating their plots impossibly but truly as a fruitful ingredient into the gift He plans for His people.

And so, the prophecy of the first reading comes to pass through Jesus life, death, and Resurrection:

I will make them one nation upon the land,
   in the mountains of Israel,
   and there shall be one prince for them all.
Never again shall they be two nations,
   and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.

Today, we see great divisions in our own society. Like the Pharisees, there are many who wish to expel God from their midst in order to attain or retain worldly power, at the cost of others. It is hard for us to see this prophecy coming true in our midst, because the chaff is growing right alongside the wheat (cf. Mt. 13:24-30). But we may trust confidently that God’s plan is unfolding with an eye to eternity; it is in Heaven where we will see the fullness of His plan come gloriously to bear. Even here, amid holy souls, we can see its first blossoms.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Talk to Jesus about His coming to gather the dispersed children of God. Beg of Him to grant unity to the Christian Church by the great power of His saving act, unity that will be a sign to all nations that points to eternal destiny. Praise Him for using even the evil hearts of His enemies for salvation; ask this all-powerful savior to use your life for the salvation of others as well.

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March 1, 2021February 11, 2021

Forgiveness

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

We cannot escape from the fact that, over and over again, Jesus makes forgiveness of our sins depend on our forgiving others their sins.

Jesus incorporates this principle into the Our Father. He also tells the parable of the unforgiving servant, whose inability to forgive his fellow servant’s debt ultimately costs him his own forgiveness (cf. Mt. 18:21ff). And in today’s gospel, He tells us that the measure of our forgiveness will be the measure by which we are forgiven.

This theme is not one that Jesus mentions once in passing. It is one that He repeats, in different forms, again and again and again.

Why is this theme so important to Jesus?

For a clue by way of foreshadowing, we can recall how Moses, once he has become a member of the Egyptian court, sees one of his countrymen, a Hebrew, abused by an Egyptian. He is filled with rage, and he kills the Egyptian, winning for himself exile.

For Jesus, each one of us is a “countryman”–and so much more. He is passionate for our brother’s and sister’s welfare, even in small things, even when they are not in grace, more than we could know.

He does not want us holding things over our brother’s and sister’s. He wants us to love them, to forgive them. Union between persons is a priority to Him second only to the union of the Blessed Trinity, and our union with that Trinity.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus why forgiveness is so important to Him. Think of the person whom it is has been most difficult to forgive in your life. Think of that person in their weakness, neediness, and insecurity, and ask Jesus to forgive them and strengthen them. And tell Him that you let their offenses go as well.

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October 23, 2020September 29, 2020

That They May Be One

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Unity among Christians is not a sentimental warm fuzzy. It is a fruit of profound orientation to the welfare of neighbor, and determination to serve that welfare–on all levels, temporal and eternal–to the point of sacrifice.

When two or three persons, or a whole community, bear this attitude toward one another and share the same faith in Christ, we have Christian unity.

Jesus makes no bones about it in today’s gospel: Work for unity, or face negative consequences.

Likewise, in the first reading, St. Paul urges us to bear with one another with love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of piece.

Virtually the entire seventeenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel is dedicated to recount a prayer uttered by Jesus to the Father begging for unity among His followers, made more poignant by the fact of its utterance at the most intense moment of His life, just prior to His death.

Elsewhere, St. Paul talks about putting away the “old man” (our former way of being, before knowing Jesus and answering His call) and putting on the “new man” (the way of being characteristic of transformation in Christ) (cf. Eph. 4:22).

It is not about just “all getting along.” Rather, there is simply no characteristic more indicative of mature Christian transformation than the theological virtue of Charity, whereby the welfare of neighbor is truly as important to us as our own. It is a gift, not acquired as a habit through practice, and the sure path to receiving it is consistent time spent with Jesus in prayer and the sacraments.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Consider the Charity necessary for Jesus to leave paradise and become a little child, with the grim mission of dying for our sins. Consider that He wants for you that very same Charity in your heart. Ask Him to grant it to you, humbly acknowledging that you cannot acquire it by effort. Tell Him that you want to want what He wants for others, more than you want anything else.

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October 20, 2020September 28, 2020

On Board for Launch

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

There is a rocket-like thrust in all of Scripture. Scripture is not a philosophy book about the nature of what is. It is a guide for a participation in a massive launch. A launch that takes us from time into eternity.

There is arguably no more prevalent theme in Jesus’ preaching than our eternal destiny: What favors it, and what puts it at risk. Today’s gospel follows this theme, essentially warning us not to be like servants who fall asleep on the job–getting cozy and comfy in our reality in time. But rather, always ready for eternity–always focusing what we do, think, love, and in fact, what we are, on that horizon. And he emphasizes something bracing and beautiful about the reality of entering eternity: It comes in a single, abrupt moment, like the Master knocking on the door upon His return.

This eternal horizon is the backdrop of St. Paul’s, well, congratulations, if you will, of the Ephesians–gentiles–for entering into the covenant of God’s people Thanks to the unifying, expansive saving act of Christ, the gentiles are no longer outsiders. They’re part of God’s “in” crowd.

Especially in today’s polarized political context, we may be accustomed to thinking about people in terms of “us” and “them,” not so differently from the way Israelites may have in the Old Testament. Against the horizon of eternity, it is not the will of the great Unifier, Jesus Christ, that any of the “them” should be lost.

If we are concerned for our own eternal destiny–and we should be, because it depends on the choices of our freedom–should we not be concerned for that of the “them”? How much time/energy do we spend praying and sacrificing for the eternal salvation of persons, perhaps especially those we may consider inimical to God’s saving message?

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Use your imagination and/or capacity for analysis to conjure a clear image of what you consider the “them” in your life. Place them in your heart on a paten, and offer them to Jesus Christ on the cross, asking Him, by His all-powerful sacrifice, to inject miraculous grace into their hearts so that they may discover and embrace Him.

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September 21, 2020September 7, 2020

Finger-Waggers

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Matthew, whose feast we celebrate today, is best known for being a person sick with sin, a resented tax collector, whom Jesus came to heal. Oh and also, for writing one of the four most important texts in history: The Gospel of St. Matthew.

As so often is the case, the interplay between today’s first reading and today’s gospel is fascinating. Paul starts us off with a plea for unity, echoing Jesus’ priestly prayer in Jn. 17. Repeating a favorite theme of his, Paul talks about how people have different gifts, but all are necessary for the health and function of the one body.

If we look through history, what is the great destroyer of unity? The fundamental answer is obvious: It is the sin of the human will through pride and sensuality, and the consequent clouding of the human intellect. Sin sets us against one another, and as a result of sin, our intellects assess and understand reality differently from one another, sometimes radically so.

But let us take a closer look at the cause for disunity in the Christian Church, specifically. Why has the Church broken apart in ages past, and what strains it most today? In addition to the sins of Christians, it is our reaction to and magnification of the sins of others that performs the coup de grace on Christian unity.

Consider the Protestant Reformation. Hey Pope, you’re doing bad things. You’re living a worldly, sinful life, you are sensual and arrogant, and you are abusing the faithful through the sale of indulgences and similar misuses of power. So what am I going to do to purify the Church? Leave. I’m taking my ball and going home. Your sin trumps my loyalty to the Church that Christ founded.

We can wag our finger at Martin Luther and fellow reformers all we want, but how often do we act similarly? You, fellow Catholic, or maybe pastor of my parish, are superficial, arrogant, not spiritual, hypocritical, etc. So, I am going to criticize you bitterly, commit the grievous sin of gossip with no remorse, and even lose hope in Christ’s promise to protect His Church.

In doing all of this, even if I am a “faithful,” orthodox Catholic, a daily Mass-goer, etc., I am the one who is driving the definitive cleaver into Church unity.

What lies at the root of this sin? The root lies in a lack of the theological virtues, especially all-important Hope, without which Charity is impossible.. And the root of this lack, as of so many things, is a lack of a healthy prayer life. Even the benefit of frequent reception of the sacraments is severely truncated when we do not dedicate time to the cultivation of a vibrant life of contemplative prayer, that is, simple, daily dialogue with Jesus Christ where we seek to know His Heart. It is in the school of prayer that we learn Jesus’ view of our fellow Christians, which is not one of bitter, frustrated condemnation, but rather one of patient and loving mercy.

The apostles, even with all the flaws we may perceive in them in the Gospel, provide us with a mute but eloquent example for Christian unity. Never once do we see them questioning Jesus for inviting Matthew, a greedy and worldly tax collector, to be one of His disciples. Never do we see the thoughtful apostle St. John upbraiding the brash Peter, or questioning Jesus’ decision to choose him as prince of the apostles. Later, St. Paul, in questioning Peter on various Church matters, does so with a respect devoid of bitterness and harsh judgement.

What is the key to the unity and lack of bitterness among the apostles? It is contact with Jesus, and His treatment of the other, His love for their particular potential even in the midst of their weakness and sin. It is contact with Jesus that will build unity in today’s Church as well, and this contact for us translates into the powerful blend of contemplative prayer and sacramental life. This unconquerable blend turns our bitterness toward our fellow sinful Christians into recognition of their potential, and passionate zeal for their spiritual and temporal welfare, built upon serene, unshakable trust in the triumph of Jesus Christ.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think of a fellow Christian with whom your struggle. Maybe it’s someone close, even your spouse; maybe it’s a more public figure. Ask Jesus how His heart contemplates that person, and what He wants for them. Ask Him to form your heart to be more like His. Maybe, like Matthew, that person will be called to turn around and make a powerful contribution to the welfare of the Church–through your love and intercession.

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