ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Third Sunday after Epiphany 2007

Fr Ivan Aquilina

It is of significance that the week of Prayer for Christian Unity falls between what was the feast day of the Chair of S Peter (which has since been transferred to the 22nd February) and the conversion of S Paul. This is significant as the octave of Prayer is sandwiched between the two main characters of the formative years of the Church. It is significant because the ecumenical question is essentially an ecclesiological question: the way how different Christians are Church.

During that Spirit filled moment which we call the Second Vatican Council; the Fathers came up with a definition of the Church which was not only true for them but joyfully acceptable to the ecumenical observers who were present for that historic event.

This definition can be found in the Council’s document about ecumenism called Unitatis Redintegratio. It is found in paragraph two of that document and it is widely held as the brainchild of giant theologians: Yves Congar OP, Augustine Bea SJ and Henri De Lubac SJ.
Let us see what this definition tells us, than let us see why the ecumenical question is essentially an ecclesiological one and finally see were this leaves us.

This scriptural definition teaches that the Church springs from the depths of Trinitarian love, the direct result of the loving action of God the Father in sending his only son to save fallen humanity. The prayer of Christ on Maundy Thursday makes present the Holy Spirit who gives the Eucharist. In turn the Eucharist makes the Church. Christ commands all members of the Church to love one another and promises the continued assistance of the Holy Spirit, the Lord who gives life.

The Church that comes forth from God is the extension of Christ’s incarnation guided by the Holy Spirit. It is the Church that through the celebration of the sacraments is made the one body of Christ in the in-between time, i.e. the time between Easter and the Second Coming.

Through faithful preaching and teaching, the administration of the sacraments and the loving leadership of the twelve and their successors, the Holy Spirit makes of us a mature body, the one body of Christ in the unity and harmony of the family of God. Thus we become one flock, the living icon of the trinity; the godly company on its way to Jerusalem the Golden. That is the Council’s definition of Church.

Why is the understanding of Church essential to the Ecumenical Movement? This organic development of the doctrine of the Church as defined in Unitatis Redintegratio necessarily implies that if the Church is one body therefore it has one mind. That mind is not the mind of Rome or Constantinople or Moscow or Canterbury or Geneva but it must be the mind of Christ. The Church can not be a collection of individuals with their own precious opinions nor a collection of ecclesial communions with their own teachings or lack thereof; it must be the body of Christ fulfilling the will of God through the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ seen in the reflection of the Church throughout the ages, what we call Tradition: what is held as truth by everyone, everywhere and down the ages. So that is why the ecumenical question is an ecclesiological one. It is only when we become fully Church, conformed to the mind of Christ that we can push away our pride and prejudices and move together to merging in unity in the freedom of being the children of God.

Where does this leave us? The council was more than right to say that the Ecumenical reunion starts with each one of us. Bishops, theologians and laity share equal responsibility in different duties. Ecumenism will only come about when each one of us converts from within. Conversion is conforming our minds to that of Christ, uniting our heartbeat to that of Christ so that it is not I who live but Christ within me.

As we approach the feast of the conversion of the glorious St Paul let us pray and reflect upon this, and without waiting let us take the decision to convert once and for all so that we may be one. “Today if you listen to his voice do not harden your hearts” but enable your mind to join that free and eternal YES to God that comes from the heart and mind of Christ, that YES on which still hovers the creative Spirit of God that brings order over primeval chaos, forgiveness where there is sin and unity where there is division.