A recent reflection on the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary on January 19, 2022 inspired some thoughts of how we may find some hope for Christian Unity in the challenge to act in a different manner to address growing disunity and revisit traditions that we may be prompted by the Spirit to change.
A Community of friends
The reflection shared the views of several commentators on the defeat of Goliath by David from the First Book of Samuel and the healing of a man with a withered hand by Jesus on the Sabbath from the Gospel of Mark. Alex Hale, SJ, a Jesuit Scholastic from Metro-Detroit, studied in the "Philosophy, Politics, and the Public" Honors Program at Xavier University while simultaneously working in local politics for various elected officials in the Cincinnati area as a legislative aide and campaign manager. He writes there is evidence that American Catholics are just as influenced, if not more so, by partisan politics than their Catholic faith on a number of hot-button issues. According to Pew Research, 56% of Catholics are in favor of legal abortion in most cases and 53% of Catholics are in favor of the death penalty. This is despite years of emphasis by church leaders on the sanctity of life from conception until natural death. This dynamic has influenced not only people’s positions on given issues but the way they treat folks on the opposing side. Hale suggests that we can find a model in St. Peter Faber, one of the founders of the Jesuits and, according to St. Ignatius Loyola, the best person to give the Spiritual Exercises.
Faber spent a good deal of his ministry in places that were heavily Protestant…Faber realized that people fell away from the faith not necessarily because of good arguments (though those play a role for sure). Rather, he wrote “They are led astray not so much by the teaching and seeming good of the Lutherans as by the wickedness of those very ones who should be examples of zeal.” Why would someone want to stay or become Catholic when they saw the hypocrisy of priests living in opulence in Faber’s time? Why would someone want to become Catholic when Catholics are publicly messaging each other that they are ‘jealous of the angel that will get to throw their opponent into hell’? This display of hatred is a major reason why people run away from the faith. Faber understood that the core of our faith is the love of Jesus.1
Thomas P. Rausch asks what will tomorrow’s church be like? Will it be a truly catholic (small “c”) church, a communion of local churches living in visible unity? Or will it be a multiplicity of churches and communities, even more divided in faith and life? The present estimate of the number of Christian denominations is roughly 43,000, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In 1900, the number was 1,600. From a Roman Catholic perspective, Christian unity means a communion of churches sharing a common heritage and living in visible communion with each other. Recently the World Council of Churches published an important convergence (not consensus) text entitled The Church: Toward a Common Vision. The statement is structured in terms of four ecclesiological issues. Relatively brief, it treats successively the church’s essentially missionary origin, its nature as a communion, its growth toward the kingdom and its relation to the world. Rausch suggests we should ask, how might the Catholic Church and the confessional churches establish the bonds of communion that witness to a common ecclesial life?
First of all, it is important to keep in mind that ecumenism always begins in friendship. When people from different churches or traditions get to know one another, they no longer remain the “other” but become friends, associates, brothers or sisters in Christ. That holds also for relations between more traditional Western churches and these new churches. Second, the social mission of the church may offer common ground for addressing together many of the practical problems these new churches face. While there are often ethical differences between the churches, most of our churches face the same differences within our communions. Finally, we might ask, what if the Catholic Church, the Orthodox churches and the other liturgical churches were to relax somewhat their sacramental discipline to extend occasional eucharistic hospitality to those from these new churches who are able to recognize Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and are willing to live in communion? Might some experience of common worship lead to a new sense of the church as a eucharistic community? So what is the future of the church? Christian unity is God’s work, not ours, as recent popes have emphasized, but we are all called to work toward it, that the world may believe (Jn 17:21).2
The Synodal Process initiated by Pope Francis begins a two-year journey that will culminate in the Synod of Bishops in October 2023. The synod is expected to adopt a final document that will guide the continuing development of a synodal church going into the future. The anointed boy, David, defeats the giant Goliath by refusing traditional amour and Jesus challenges the traditional practice of the Pharisees and does not hesitate to bring freedom and new life to the marginalized. Perhaps our Prayer for Christian Unity is that we open our hearts to action that increases the “friends” in communion in our Church.
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