St. Mary of the Assumption

Maple Park, Illinois

January 2019 Parish Calendar

 

One of the blessings which I count during my 55+ years in the priesthood is the opportunity I was given for many years of participating in the ecumenical work of the Church.  When Vatican II met in the 1960s Pope St. John XXIII opened the door to the long and arduous work of addressing the 400-year old shattering of the unity of the Church by the Protestant revolt against the visible authority which had been accepted by Christianity for 1500 years.  The revolt was carried out for the most part in a desire for reform in the Church of Christ, but for many reasons the desire for reform without unity with the Pope and Catholic bishops exploded into a constant shattering of unity within the ranks of would-be reformers, and today there are around 20,000 different communities of Christians that claim to be the Church founded by Jesus.

The pre-Vatican II Christian world, from the 1500s into the 20 ^th century, was plagued by much ignorance and hostility as well-meaning Christians—Catholic and non-Catholic—looked with suspicion on those who differed in their views about how to follow Christ.  Different Christian groups both suffered physical violence and, sadly, used it against others.  It must be admitted that there is shared blame for Christianity’s common failure to heed the Lord’s command to “ love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.”  As imperfect human beings, our faith is too often influenced by human passions rather than the difficult way of Christ.

In the context of four centuries of division, Pope St. John XXIII invited Protestant observers to watch bishops of the Catholic Church discuss ways in which the teachings and way of life of Jesus might be offered to the modern world in ways which people of contemporary cultures could better understand and embrace.  The Pope wisely saw two things: [1] the lack of Christian unity, and especially hostility within Christianity itself, was an obstacle to Christ’s desire that His disciple be … one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us [John 18:21] ; [2] the Christian communities of the Reformation era of the 1500s have within them many elements of Christian living, and through baptism have a basic, although incomplete, unity with all the baptized.

The Pope therefore referred to other Christians as “separated brethren,” rather than deliberate heretics.  (A “heretic” is someone who picks and chooses what he or she will believe.)  He saw, as we have seen in our mingling with non-Catholic Christians, that devotion and love for Christ and His way of life is found in the lives of countless Christians, and that God’s gifts of grace have been shared abundantly in all authentic Christian communities of faith.

Through my years as priest I have come to treasure times of interacting with good Christian people of non-Catholic congregations, and I have good friends who are Ministers in non-Catholic Churches.  This has never tempted me to turn from the Catholic Church, which has the fullness of Christ within it, but has inspired me to appreciate the boundless richness of God’s grace spread throughout all people.  In a perfect world, all Christians would be one in the fullness of the Catholic Church, but we are not in a perfect world.  We bear the burden of the shattering of Christian unity in past centuries.  Like the story of Humpty-Dumpty, we Christians have been able to break the egg of unity, but we cannot put it back together again—but Christ can, and so we continually turn to Him in prayer, asking Him to make us one in Him.

January 18-25 is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  I am saddened that much of the enthusiasm for Christian unity which I once saw and worked for has been diminished by the difficult task required.  But Jesus prayed that His disciples would be one in Him—and the Word of God is never without its effect.  The Church is still His Church, and He will bring it to unity in His own good time.