495. January 20, Octave of Christian Unity - 3
Meditations no. 425 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Unity and fraternity in the Church.
The Acts of the Apostles tell how the first Christians persevered unanimously in prayer, and that the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, and no one considered as his own the things that he possessed, but they all shared their things in common.
Our Father used to remind us that it is an essential part of the Christian spirit not only to live in union with the ordinary Hierarchy - the Roman Pontiff and the Episcopate -but also to feel that unity with our other brothers and sisters in the faith. From a long time ago I have thought that one of the greatest evils in the Church in these times is the lack of knowledge that many Catholics have about what Catholics do and think in other countries and social contexts. We have to make this fraternity that the first Christians lived so deeply, actual. If it were thus, we would feel very united, loving at the same time the variety of personal vocations that there are in the Church; and we would avoid many unjust and offensive judgements, which certain small groups propagate - in the name of Catholicism - against our brothers and sisters in the faith, who in fact work uprightly and with sacrifice.
We all ought to feel that we are called to foster the unity within the Church, which is a guarantee of the efficacy of ecumenical action, because unity is a symptom of life: disunity is putrefaction, a certain sign of being a corpse. As Pope Paul VI pointed out, unity is not only a prerogative of the Catholic Church; it is a duty, a law, a commitment. In other words, the unity of the Church should be received and recognised by everybody and by all the members of the Church, and it ought to be promoted, loved and defended by all and by each one of us. It is not enough to call ourselves Catholics: we have to be really united. The faithful sons of the Church ought to be the ones who construct this specific unity, this social bond.
This interior cohesion is the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit and of the individual efforts to overcome barriers and to remove obstacles, and in this way, corresponding to an explicit Will of God. Everybody - no one can consider himself dispensed from this duty - has the pressing obligation to contribute to that sense of solidarity, of friendship, of mutual understanding, of respect for the common patrimony of doctrine and customs, of obedience and unity in the faith that ought to distinguish Catholicism; this is what constitutes its strength and its beauty, and what demonstrates its authenticity.
We have to live an ordered charity with everyone.
The unity within the Church ought to be seen firstly in the fraternal concord which exists amongst all those who make up the family of God: that there be nothing amongst you which might divide you, insisted St Ignatius of Antioch. This union has to be the product of a positive attitude, of the charity of Christ, which looks for that fraternal dealing with one another amongst those of us who constitute the People of God, because within the sheepfold of the Church there ought not be discord nor lack of understanding.
We have always loved non-Catholics: we love all the souls in the world! But with order, with the order of charity. First of all, our brothers in the faith, our Father used to proclaim always. Therefore, a Catholic who mistreats another Catholic, and treats those who are not Catholics with apparent charity, is a man who has gone off the rails badly, a man who errs against justice, covering over his error with a false charity.
Our founder explained it in a very graphic way: I am very interested in the person who is walking in the street now, but I am more interested in all of you. How am I to love that person, whom I do not know, more than you who are my children? If this were to occur, it would be a sure sign that I wasnât concerned for that person or for you: I cannot believe in the ecumenical spirit, or in the charity of those who say that they are concerned for the people who are far from the Church, if they mistreat their brothers in the faith and forget about that Pauline precept: Ergo, dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum ad omnes, maxime autem ad domesticos Fidei (Gal 6: 70).
Unfortunately, on occasions, we can come up against the sad paradox of some who, under the banner of a false irenicism, display an extraordinary liberality and understanding with non-Catholics, and at the same time show an intolerant intransigence with their own brothers in the Faith, even to the point of denying them the right to dissent from their own personal opinions - which might be more or less reasonable - in areas which the Church leaves up to everybodyâs free discernment. And our Father put us on our guard: Donât let yourselves be deceived by a false compassion. Many who appear to be moved by a desire to communicate the truth, concede in things which one cannot touch; and they call understanding with those who are in error, what is no more than negative criticism, at times quite brutal and pitiless, of the doctrine of our Mother the Church. We ought to practise a charity which is universal and ordered: Treat those who do not know the things of God with affection, wrote our Father. But with more reason you have to treat, in this same way, those who know them: if not, you cannot fulfil the first part of your plan.
Unity is not uniformity.
St Paul, after having spoken to the faithful in Corinth about the radical equality of all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, continues: now, God has organised each of the members of the body as he wanted to. If all were only one member, where would the body be?⌠And God has placed them thus in the Church: first apostles, second prophets, third doctors, then the power to work miracles⌠Are all apostles? Or all prophets? Or all doctors? Or do all have the gift of healing? Or do all speak in tongues?
The Church exercises her mission through the work of all her children, but in different ways. The members who are in Holy Orders⌠are destined primarily to the sacred ministry, by reason of their particular vocation. The religious, by virtue of their state, give a clear and inestimable witness that the world cannot be transformed or offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes. It corresponds to the laity, by proper vocation to try to bring about the kingdom of God by being involved in temporal things.
All this variety is the multiform richness of the Mystical Body, within its divine unity: only one Body with only one Soul; one way of thinking, one heart, the same sentiments, one will, and one desire. But a multitude of organs and members. Within the wonderful variety which unfolds from the unity of the Church, our Lord has wanted to include many different ways of serving. Therefore, it would be a great mistake to confuse unity with uniformity and to insist, for example, on the unity of the Christian vocation, without considering, at the same time, the diversity of vocations and specific missions, which fit within that general call, and which develop their multiple aspects for the service of God.
It is important, our Father insisted, that each person tries to be faithful to his own personal calling, in such a way that he does not fail to bring to the Church what the charism received from God brings with it. Therefore, he went on, if the members of the Work did not look after their work in the world⌠, they would make the divine gifts they have received ineffectual, and⌠they would cause real damage to the Church: because there would not then be as many Christians sanctifying themselves in all the professions and occupations in civil society, in that immense field of secular work.
We go to the Virgin Mary, Mater Ecclesiae, asking her to help all her children to be very united, each one fulfilling the mission they have received.