494. January 19, Octave of Christian Unity - 2

Meditations no. 424 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Church founded by Jesus Christ is one and unique.

Throughout these days when we are asking our Lord to accelerate the coming of this desired union of all Christians, we want to consider the divine beauty of the Church, which he wanted to found on the earth as a sign and. instrument of the intimate union with God and the unity of human kind.

Sacred Scripture has many ways to designate the Church. It is the sheepfold whose only door is Christ, the field that he himself cultivates on the earth, the House of God, the immaculate Spouse of the Lamb, the Mystical Body of Christ… They are diverse images and figures which try to express in some way the interior richness of the Church, its perfection and beauty, its close and indissoluble union with Christ, and at the same time, its spiritual and social character.

This Church founded by Christ is recognised by those four notes, which are expressed in the confession of faith of one of the first Councils, and which we pray in the Creed of the Mass: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (Nicean Creed). These are the essential properties of the Church which are derived from its nature, just as Christ wanted it. And, given that they are essential, they are also notes, signs which distinguish it from any other type of human gathering, though in these others you might hear the name of Christ.

Though the Church founded by our Lord is only one, there are many Christian communities which present themselves to men and women as the true inheritance of Jesus Christ. Without doubt all of them profess that they are disciples of our Lord, but they feel themselves different and travel along different paths, as if Christ himself were divided. Such division not only stands in open contradiction to the will of Christ, but is also a scandal for the world and prejudices the holy cause of the preaching of the Gospel.

It is during these days that we pray to God so that he opens the eyes of those who are outside of the Church and moves their hearts, so that they return to the one sheepfold of Christ. The is the clear will of Jesus, who did not conceive nor form the Church in such a way that it would take in the plurality of communities which were similar in their genus but distinct, and not tied by those bonds which make the Church one and indivisible… When Jesus Christ spoke of this mystical edifice, He only points to one Church which he calls his own: “I will build my Church” (Matt 16: 18). Any other that we can imagine outside of this one, since it was not founded by Jesus Christ, cannot be the true Church of Jesus Christ.

The union of Christians? our Father used to ask himself. And he would answer: Yes. Even more: the union of all those who believe in God. But there exists only one true Church. There is no need to rebuild it out of pieces dispersed throughout the world.

Without union with the Church there are no supernatural fruits.

The Son of God decreed that the Church be his Mystical Body and that, therefore, that it be united to him as to its Head, with a certain similarity to the human body which he assumed, which naturally, is perfectly united to its head.

In so far as the Mystical Body of Christ is concerned, the Church is a healthy organism in which the different members live not for themselves, but for the good of the whole. If the foot said to the ear: given that I am not the eye, I am not the body, does it, because of this cease to be the body. If all the body were the eye, where would the hearing be? If all were the ear, where would the sense of smell be. If the members do not want to stay in their own place, if they were to seek to be independent of the head, they would destroy the unity of the body and it would die. Your body, our Father commented, needs each one of the members, but each one of the members needs the whole body too. - How bad if my hand stopped fulfilling its function… , or if my heart stopped beating!

The experience, unfortunately so often repeated throughout history, has always been the same: Don’t you see that those who separate themselves from the Church, even if before they had borne much fruit, quickly dry up dry and their fruits turns into a seething pile of worms? Love the Holy Church, apostolic, roman, one!

The mission of those of us who love the Church is to see that not one single branch gets detached from the trunk and that those who have separated return to the unity. A necessary condition to attain this unity is the realisation that the existence of the Church does not follow a precarious human plan, but a plan of God. The Redemption, the salvation of the world, is the work of the loving and filial fidelity of Jesus Christ - and of us with Him - to the will of the celestial Father who sent him. Therefore the aggiornamento of the Church - now, just as in any other time in history - consists fundamentally of this: a joyful reaffirmation of the fidelity of the People of God to the mission they have received, to the Gospel.

Faced with the distortions which could imperil this unity, our founder taught us to react with supernatural sense and a loving fidelity to the Magisterium. A husband, a soldier, an administrator, he told us, is always that much better a husband, soldier or administrator, the more faithfully he knows how, at each moment of his life, before each new circumstance, to face up to the commitments of love and justice that he one day took on. In this way we will always be vigilant, so that we do not let ourselves be confused. Thus, before human errors, our supernatural sense will shine out, and everything, absolutely everything, will lead us to love the Church more, and to feel that we are part of the Mystical Body of Christ, and the insults and injuries that it might receive will hurt us. Nevertheless, with a positive and optimistic sense of reality, because we are working with God, who does not lose battles, which won’t be lacking until the end of time, when he comes to take us with him, in his infinite mercy, so that we will never be separated from his side again.

Personal responsibility to conserve and better this unity.

Jesus Christ founded only one Church, our Father used to repeat. And he would add: there aren’t churches. The Church is one: on this rock I will build my Church (Matt 16: 18). Only one!… Have this be deeply engraved in your heart.

Then Father, do we not love those who are outside? With all our hearts, but in order to come to the Church of Christ they have to come through the door, leaving outside all that which gets in the way, and taking up what they do not have. How are we going to construct this unity? By destroying the Catholic Church to do it, and by leaving intact the errors of the others? Is this unity?

In the last years of his life, our Father suffered a great deal when, in some circles there was a tendency to cede in the truths of the faith, with the excuse of favouring ecumenism. His heart was filled with sorrow but also with hope because he knew that the Holy Spirit is always vivifying the Mystical Body of Christ. Now, he said in 1971, that everything is a corpse - it only seems to be that way! - we Christians fully united together through the mercy of God, are many - indeed the vast majority. Those who do remain faithful will see the Church reborn and once again as united and beautiful as always.

Our Father encouraged us to ask God that in the Holy Church, our Mother, the hearts of everybody, just as in primitive Christianity, be only one heart, so that, until the end of time those words of Sacred Scripture be truly fulfilled: “multitudinis autem credentium erat cor unum et anima una” - the multitudes of the faithful had only one heart and one soul. And as a logical consequence of this prayer he spurred us on to an examination of conscience: I’m serious: let it never happen that you lesion this holy unity, Take this to your prayer!

He also taught us that to defend the unity of the Church is to live very united to Jesus Christ, who is our vine. How? By growing in fidelity to the perennial Magisterium of the Church… By venerating this Mother of ours without stain; and loving the Roman Pontiff, we will preserve unity.

Our Lord counts on this daily personal effort that we make to feel more responsible for this mission. We cannot, through negligence or a lack of a lively interest, defraud the hopes of those who hope to find in the Spouse of Christ the way to heaven. We have to vibrate always: if we do this, we will find next to the Cross our Mary Most Holy, the Mother of God and our Mother. And guided by her blessed hand, we will come to Jesus, and through him to the Father, in the Holy Spirit.