Church Unity

I was googling available Catholic parishes in the Chicago area this past weekend to find one close to where I was staying and to determine Mass times.  I found that the parishes in the town where I was located had “reviews” posted by individuals who had attended there.  Some parishes were labelled “contemporary”, another “traditional”, or “nothing extraordinary.”

Amazing isn’t it how we want to label and categorize and in some ways divide the Body of Christ.

St. Clement I, a pope in the early years of the Church had this to say about disunity in the Church, and I quote, using my English translation:

“Why the contention, fury, discord, schisms and war among you? Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one Spirit of grace given to all of you, one vocation in Christ? Why the ripping and shredding of the members of Christ?  Why do you rebel against your own body and come to a point of delirium in forgetting you are members of one another?

“Recall the words of Jesus our Savior.  He said, ‘Woe to that man! It would be better if he were not born rather than bringing scandal to one of my elect. It would be better if a huge millstone were on his neck and he were submerged in the sea rather than bring one of my elect to evil.’

“Your divisions have diverted many, have thrown many into discouragement, many into doubt, and all of you into sorrow, and your disunity continues even now….. it is a dishonor that we must eliminate immediately. Let us throw ourselves at the feet of the Lord and beg him with tears… that he may restore us to his friendship and re-establish us as a magnificent and chaste fraternity of love.” — St. Clement, “Letter to the Corinthians”

It seems the ancient Christians did as we now do.  DIviding themselves up according to loyalties to individual priests or teachers and casting judgment on the others.  St. Paul of course warned us of this too, when he chastized the early churches for their overriding allegiance to him, or Peter, or Apollos. 

It is Jesus Christ who unites us.  We follow him. We are his disciples. Those who lead us do so in his name, with his message and his grace.