From January 18 to the 28, we celebrate two of my favorite feast days, St. Francis de Sales, my patron and the patron of this blog, and St. Thomas Aquinas. However, in the midst of those celebrations, we also commemorate and recal some of the great tragedies of our time; the anniversary of Roe v. Wade is on January 22, and thousands of people will march in the nation's Capitol in the March for Life . Tomorrow we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which while certainly not an ecclesiastical holy day, and without advocating for or against any of the more controversial civil rights issues, should at least be a day upon which we pause to reflect on how we may individually contribute to bridging the inequalities present in our society and world.
But this is also the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is the subject I wish to share my thoughts with you all today. The theme this year is "Has Christ been divided?" and the Scripture passage given for our meditation is 1 Corinthians 1:1-17, a portion of which happened to be our Second Reading today. Within this passage, Paul is addressing the Chirch of Corinth and calling them to task for their many divisions. I share a portion of the passage:
judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there
Paul questions the Corinthians on whether or not Christ has been divided, because they have essentially put themselves into various cliques and follow their own leaders, when in essence we know that Christians have ultimately one leader, Jesus Christ. Now Paul is not saying that we cannot have any divisions or groupings within the Church, for this is absurdity! It would mean we could not have separate religious orders, it would mean we could not have dioceses, it would mean we could not even the Altar and Rosary Society and the Christian Mothers! Rather, he is saying that we cannot believe that those groups to which we belong are our ultimate end; we belong to Jesus Christ in the end, as all those groups do if they are truly of Christ. While the Franciscans may look to St. Francis of Assisi for guidance, they are really looking to Jesus Christ, as Francis was only a follower of Him. The bishop of a diocese leads it as Christ, not as himself, which is why obedience to the bishop is obedience to Christ, for he acts in persona Christi.
I shall return to these thoughts on unity within the Church later, but for now let us consider the unity amongst all Christians. The teaching of the Church is, and has always been that one is made a member of Christ's Mystical Body, the Church, by Baptism. Therefore, any church that maintains valid Baptism, baptizes them into the Mystical Body of Christ. But our thoughts now instantly rebel with the fact that many of the churches with valid Baptism are not united to Rome, or may even be in schism!
This brings us to the theme of this week, "Has Christ been divided?" For if any church that baptizes validly, baptizes into the Church of Christ, how can we hold that Christ is one and yet many churches? I believe that we must look to biology to aid us here. In the human body, we do not say that a paralyzed arm is any less a part of the body, than when it was not paralyzed. But we would certainly hold that it does not fulfill its true purpose, or that it is fully functioning; to do so would be insane! It is like that with the Mystical Body of Christ. All of the divisions between Christians have made an illness within the Body of Christ. The Head, Jesus Christ, is no longer able to communicate properly with all of the members.
How deep is this illness! Imagine for a moment if your body was riddled by a most horrible disease, where your mind was fully intact, and you could think and will without trouble. Your problem is that no part of your body below your neck would respond. You are still able to speak, hear, and see, but you cannot control your arms or legs, or any other appendage. Granted, the heart is still working to keep you alive, but it is in such pain that it does so, for the body is fighting against itself. It is even attacking the heart and lungs, but they struggle on in such agony. But this is not simply paralysis, for your arms and legs will often thrash out, perhaps to your great detriment. Perhaps the hand will often hit you, or the leg kick you. Think also of the harm you would cause to those around you, you may often attack them without intending to; at the very least, they will think they must keep their distance for their own safety. How great would be the agony of this illness!
But this agony is what the Body of Christ undergos today! Has Christ been divided? NO! Is Christ sick? YES!
We believe that the Catholic Church under the bishop of Rome, Christ's vicar on earth, contains the fullness of truth. When she speaks, Christ speaks. She sees and hears the truth, for it is Christ who speaks it to Her. She is the Head of all the churches upon earth, even if they are separated from Her by schism, heresy, or ignorance. Thus, She is like the head of the body in our above image. She calls out to the other churches, but they do not respond because of the illness which has afflicted them. The heart and lungs and lifeblood represent the grace of the Holy Spirit, which communicates grace unto the entire body, but under struggle due to the great conflict It undergos.
Throughout the ages of the Church to the present day, there have been numerous conflicts amongst the various churches. How deeply these have injured the Body of Christ! And now let us recall in the above image how no one would approach this person for fear of being harmed. Can we be surprised that many do not want to approach Christianity when they see the harm the churches have done to each other? Must it not terrify them to think that this is what the Truth costs?
While we know this to be untrue and not what Christ intended, it is what we unconsciously say to the world. But let us also consider the other part of the above image; we are not able to approach others while the Body fights Itself. We cannot call others to Christ while we quarrel amongst ourselves, and this is truly the greater tragedy! Christ called us to "make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28: 19)," and we fail in our Great Commission when we fail in this!
Let us return though to our considerations of the divisions within the Church Herself. How can we expect to heal the Body, when the Head even quarrels with itself. The Church is unfortunately riddled by many separations, for we say, "I belong to this parish, not that one," "I am a conservative Catholic, I despise liberal Catholics," "We must help the St. Vincent de Paul Society; do not worry about the Liturgy!" All of these statements, their reverses, and the many others cause further division, within the Body of Christ! We cannot follow Christ and only promote the Liturgy, we cannot follow Christ and only aid our parish, we cannot follow Christ and spurn our brothers and sisters in need!
"Can the blind lead the blind (Luke 6:39)?" We cannot heal the divisions among all Christians and churches, until we heal the divisions within our own churches and in ourselves. Let us continue to pray for Christian unity, but until we conform ourselves to fully following Jesus Christ, the reunification will remain only a dream. Of course there will always be problems and divisions, but once we resolve to follow Christ, we can rest assured that we will receive what Paul said unto the Corinthians:
eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in
Mary, Mother of the Church, Pray for us!
St. Peter and St. Paul, Pillars of the Church, Pray for us!
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