St. Gregory in today’s Office of Readings has some beautiful words on the unity of faith in the Christian community. Here is an excerpt (my translation from the Italian text I use):
“But among all the words that he (Jesus) speaks and all the graces that he bestows, there is one that is the greatest of all and brings together all the others. It is with these words that Christ admonishes his disciples to always find themselves united in the answers to questions and in their evaluations as to what is good to do; to experience themselves united in one heart and one spirit and to esteem this unity as the one good; to bind themselves in the unity of the Holy Spirit with the bond of peace; to build one body and one spirit; to work together with one calling, animated by the same hope….. The bond of this unity is authentic glory.” — St. Gregory of Nyssa, “Homily on the Canticle of Canticles”; Hom. 15; PG 44, 1115-1118
One of the things I admired about Pope John Paul II was his untiring efforts toward reconciliation between the Churches, especially between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. But also the efforts he made to reach out to our Jewish brothers and sisters, and to the Protestant communities.
It seems to me though that most of the hard work of bringing back together into one flock of Christ all people who call Jesus the Son of God will be done at the local level. Perhaps even at the level of our own families. Our Holy Father has an indispensable role as the successor of Peter and the Vicar of Christ on earth. He leads and enters into aspects of this only he can enter in communion with the other bishops of the world. We the People of God will do most of the legwork.
For we are the face of Christ in the immediacy of the human condition to our neighbor next door.
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