Editorial

By Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB

This is excerpted from the end of a homily at an ecumenical prayer service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

In the readings proposed for this centennial celebration among all churches and ecclesial communities, that from St. Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians takes pride of place. The Apostle exhorts us to "rejoice always" and "to pray without ceasing." I would like to make a brief but pressing exhortation to pray for the cause of unity.

The ecumenical movement is truly a movement of prayer, a great chorus which expresses our sorrow for sins against the unity Christ desired, gives thanks for successful efforts undertaken, and implores the grace to persevere until the will of Christ is finally accomplished.

St. Paul encourages the Thessalonian community to live out its God-given unity in Christ, to be in practice what it is in principle: the one body of Christ.

In baptism we commit ourselves to the following of Christ and the fulfilment of His will. This will for His followers was expressed in the Lord's prayer for the unity of all those who would come to believe in Him as the one sent by God. Thus we are to pray and to pray unceasingly, as the Apostle beckons, for visible unity among all Christians. This prayer is most intense during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which closes with the Jan. 25 feast of the conversion of St. Paul.

We know, of course, that Christian unity cannot be solely the fruit of human efforts; it is always the work of the Holy Spirit. As humans, we cannot make or organize it. We can only receive it as a gift of the Spirit when we ourselves are prepared to receive it.

We prepare by prayer. Our first common task is to pray. When Christians pray together, the goal of unity draws closer. In our persevering and unceasing prayer, our long history marked by divisions seems to converge once more, because that prayer tends toward that source of its unity which is Jesus Christ.

In the fellowship of prayer Christ is truly present; He prays "in us," "with us," and "for us." It is He Who leads our prayer in the Spirit-Counsellor whom He promised and then bestowed on His Church. In praying together Christians become more aware of their communion, even if it is not yet full. Moreover, in praying we learn to listen to the Lord better, because only by listening to the Lord and following His voice can we find the way to unity.

Prayer, then, is the pre-eminent means for restoring full Christian unity. Above all, the common prayer of Christians is necessary, prayer specifically for unity but also for other intentions.

The prospect of full and visible communion can sometimes give rise to discouragement. Some want to accelerate the process at all costs, lacking the patience necessary. Others become discouraged at the long journey ahead. But all of us are learning at the school of ecumenism to live this interim period with humble trust, aware that it is a journey of no return for those faithful to the Gospel.

If more and more of us unite ourselves interiorly to the Lord's prayer in St. John's Gospel "that all may be one," then our prayer, made in the name of Jesus, will not go unheard. Nor can we overlook that the Lord had a precise goal in mind: "That the world believe." The Father cannot but respond positively to the request of Christians united in prayer, since, as Jesus Himself says, "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them."

For 100 years now we have made Jesus's prayer in the upper room our own. But we constantly need to go back and meet together in the Jerusalem Cenacle of Holy Thursday, even though our presence together in that place will not be in perfect conformity to God's will until the obstacles to full ecclesial communion are overcome.

In the meantime, as the Gospel says, we must be confident that our prayer for unity, despite the remaining obstacles, will be heard. When, where, and how this restoration of full unity will occur is not for us to determine. This is left to the One Who is Lord of the Church and Who will gather His Church from the four winds.

We must be content to recognize the gifts received with gratitude and look to the future with hope. With God's help, we will also find practical solutions to the different questions which remain open and, in the end, our desire for unity will come to fulfilment, whenever and however the Lord wills.

In the meantime, our journey moves forward gradually but urgently, step by step, as the Letter to the Ephesians says, until at last we will all "attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."