That All May Be One

 

Deacon Dave · That All May Be One

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 16, 2022. The Gospel of St. John 2:1-11. Theme: That All May Be One

On January 18 the Catholic Church, in conjunction with other Christian denominations, will observe the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It will end on Jan. 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the great Apostle of Church Unity. This special time of prayer was begun in New York in 1907 by an Episcopalian priest who soon after became Catholic. Even though this Week of Prayer for Unity has been happening for 114 years, it is sadly overlooked by so many in our Church today, even by those who are in pastoral leadership. I say “sadly” because the division of the Body of Christ into thousands of different denominations is a terrible scandal to the world. How can we give credible witness to being the Body of Christ on earth and serving the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God, as St. Paul writes in today’s second reading, when in reality we are a broken and divided Christianity? 

There are those who say that it really doesn’t matter which Christian church you belong to as long as you believe in and follow Jesus. Now, that is a good thing, but is that really totally true? Think about it. The Son of God left the glory and power of Heaven to become flesh and live among us. He chose to do this so that he could teach us his Gospel which is truth and light leading us out of confusion and darkness. He became man to forgive our sins and to give us the Holy Spirit to form us into one family of God the Father. Before leaving our world he established a community to be his voice proclaiming the gospel and continuing his mission on planet Earth until the end of time. Do we dare to think that Our Lord bothered to do all this so that we can then just pick and choose what we like or don’t like about him or his teachings? Or that we might have a better idea of how to build a church that is better than the one he established? 

The plain objective facts of history clearly show us that Jesus Christ established a community of disciples, and before returning to Heaven, placed it under the care of the Apostles with Peter as their leader. History also shows us that there was only one such Christian community for 1,000 years and it has been called the Catholic Church since about the year 110 AD. And so there was never any need to find various adjectives to differentiate between Christians or their communities. They were all members of the Catholic Church and so the words “Christian” and “Church” referred only to one entity: the Catholic Church founded by Jesus and centered in Rome where its earthly leader lived. 

But by the 11th century, many Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire, today’s lands of Russia, Turkey and Greece, broke away from the leadership of the pope as the successor of St. Peter. Simply put, they did not like the way the pope was exercising his authority and they wanted to be shepherded by just their own bishops. Today we call the descendants of these Eastern Christians the Orthodox Church. They kept the teachings of Jesus, the celebration of all seven sacraments, and devotion to Mary and the saints, and, except for the issue of unity with the Pope, they are much like us in many ways and we consider them to still be part of the one Church established by Christ. However, their movement away from the leadership of the pope began a crack in the worldwide Church which, over time, would spread and result in further fracturing of the Body of Christ on earth. 

If we fast forward a few centuries we see this fissure of disunity crossing over into Europe, where it reaches a breaking point in the actions of a Catholic priest named Martin Luther. Originally reacting to legitimate abuses and valid complaints about Church leadership, Luther began his protests within the Catholic Church but sadly ended up outside of it. He chose to seek the much-needed reform in the Church under his own authority and in opposition to the pope. And so he became known as the Father of the Protestant Reformation, with its legacy of giving birth to thousands of different churches throughout the world, each one interpreting the teachings of Christ as they see fit. 

What happened to the one Church of Jesus Christ founded upon the rock of St. Peter? All of these fractures in the Church began with one common denominator: the weakening of and then walking away from loyal and respectful obedience to the pope, who is the Christ-given father of unity in the Church. This is how it always begins. Sometimes the wound is serious but not fatal, such as the Orthodox Christians who still remain a part of the apostolic Church started by Christ. And other times it is gaping and bleeds profusely, such as in many of the Protestant denominations that have discarded almost all of the Lord’s teachings and sacraments. But in either case it hurts and infects the whole Body. 

We see this danger of division happening even today among those who speak disrespectfully of Pope Francis and who question his fidelity to Christ. These contemporary dissenters to unity seem to be following in the footsteps of the Orthodox in the 11th century or of Luther in the 16th, who claimed to know better than the pope what Jesus would or would not want for his Church. They seem to grant to themselves a divinely appointed role of leadership such as they will not grant to the pope. Now, there have indeed been popes in history who did not reflect Christ, who did not inspire allegiance or did not deserve loyalty. But they were still the leaders of the Church, still the successors of St. Peter even if not admirable ones. They still were owed obedience as the legitimate authority under Christ. We have to recall that even St. Peter himself momentarily denied Christ, yet this did not make the Risen Christ declare Peter’s leadership to be null and void. As a matter of fact it was at that time that Jesus confirmed the overall leadership of Peter telling him to “feed my lambs and tend my sheep.” (John 21:15-17) 

So for our own spiritual well-being, we should ignore those who speak ill of the Holy Father. Stay away from them! Do not listen to them! Instead, we must jealously protect our union with Christ and cherish in our hearts the treasure of our own personal communion with his Church. We would do well to ask such people, to ask these dissenters - as well as ourselves - some vitally important questions. Did Jesus preach one Gospel, establish one Church, command one Baptism, and institute one Eucharist or not? And if he did, who in the world are we to challenge his plan? Who are we to ignore this heritage? And do we believe that Jesus said to Peter, “You are rock and on this rock I will build my church; strengthen your brethren; feed my lambs, tend my sheep”? (Mt 16:17-19; Lk 22:32; Jn 21:15-17) And if he did say these things to Peter, then who are we to disrespect and ignore the earthly shepherd of the Church that Christ has appointed? 

I think we can safely say that the family of Christ on earth in the 21st century is deeply wounded and dysfunctional. We desperately stand in need of help. And in a family, who is the one to whom all usually turn for comfort, understanding and assistance? I would say it's the mother, who always wants to see her children united and happy. So how wonderful and how providential it is that just as we approach this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, our gospel today calls us to turn to the Mother of Jesus. She is, after all, Mother of the Church, Mother of Christ and thus the Mother of all Christians. So, let’s ask her to pray for healing in the wounded Body of Christ on earth. Let’s go to her with the request to turn the water of our division into the joyful wine of family unity. Let’s ask Mary to help us make a reality the prayer for unity which Jesus spoke on the night before He died: “Father may they be one in us, just as you and I are one, so that there will be just one flock under one shepherd, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:21)

A traditional illustration of St. Peter the Apostle, first Pope of the Catholic Church.  he hold keys to remind us that Jesus said he would give Peter the "keys to the kingdom" (which is Bible-speak for giving someone authority).  In the upper right corner is a depiction of the Risen Lord confirming Peter in his role as earthly shepherd of the Church.  In the bottom right corner the rooster reminds us of Peter's denial of Christ, which should us realize that popes are human and can make bad choices, but they still retain authority and Jesus can still work through them to lead, teach and shepherd the Church on earth.