Ordinary 3

The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time / The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Isaiah 8:23-9:3: Psalm 27; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23

The Rt. Reverend Bruce Myers, the Anglican Bishop of Quebec, recalled that this past Christmas he celebrated the Eucharist in a relatively remote community of about 400 people. A Roman Catholic priest also flew into the village to celebrate Mass for the feast. In separate churches a short walk from each other, the Anglicans gathered at 7:00pm and the Catholics at 10:30pm. Because of the number of interchurch marriages in this community, several people including the bishop attended both Eucharistic celebrations. Catholic Christians and Anglican Christians read and listened to the same biblical passages, preached the same Gospel, sang the same hymns, used essentially the same Eucharistic Prayer, and even wore the same vestments – but separately, at different times, in different churches and around separate altars.

Two Eucharistic celebrations of the Incarnation simultaneously and paradoxically testifying to both the Church’s fundamental unity and its scandalous divisions.

What do you think of this situation that occurred this past Christmas?

What message do you think it gives to the rest of the world?

The ecumenical movement has come so far. Some of us remember a time when Catholics were not allowed to enter the Churches of other Christians. A time when a Catholic who fell in love with a Protestant was unceremoniously married in the rectory behind closed doors. A time when Catholic triumphalism rather than Gospel values were heralded and “they” just needed to return home.

We are in the midst of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We have come so far and yet seemingly have so much further to go because we have forgotten?

Forgotten that on 21 November 1964 the Second Vatican Council proclaimed its Decree on Ecumenism. Its opening sentence is remarkable even today, almost 50 years hence: “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.”  

Forgotten that 1995 saw the encyclical Ut Unum Sint - That They May Be One of Pope John Paul II that posed an open invitation to all Christians to mutually address the character of the Petrine/Papal ministry, considered the greatest obstacle to Christian unity. Twenty–eight years hence, not one Christian community has formally responded to him. An ecumenical opportunity tragically missed.

Forgotten that 1999 the ecumenical movement bore fruit in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The Declaration states that the Lutheran and Catholic Churches now share “a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.” It took centuries for us to listen to each other and discover the truth which was always in our midst. This joint declaration essentially resolved the 500-year-old conflict over the nature of justification which was at the root of the Protestant Reformation. Why has organic unity continued to be so elusive?

Is the answer found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church? Change the names and the letter could have been written today.

“I belong to Francis.” “I belong to John Paul.”  “I belong to Pius.” We’ve allowed celebrity to enter the Church as it has in so many other aspects of life. There is good reason why we call entertainment and athletic figures “idols,” they are no less that than the ‘golden calf’ at the base of Sinai. Or you hear, “I’m a traditionalist Catholic.” “I’m a devote Catholic.” I’m a progressive Catholic.” It’s all about who is right which means the other person is wrong. It’s come to mean, “I’m better than you.” The Corinthian Church’s sin of division has become our sin in spades.

Would that we just called ourselves what we first were called in the first century Syrian city of Antioch, Christian.

“I urge you, brothers and sisters… that there be no divisions among you…for it has been reported to me that there are rivalries among you.” Rivalry continues to divide us as Catholics and as Christian Churches. Christian Unity does not begin nor will it end with international dialogues and conferences. It begins within the heart of each Christian. Each of us needs to deeply reflect and answer Paul’s questions.

Who was crucified for me?

In whose name was I baptized?