Vigils Reading

CHRISTIAN UNITY

From the writing of Matthew the Poor7

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It is because the Christian seeks God that he seeks unity; he feels it present in his soul, according to the measure in which he feels the presence of God. Christian unity is, therefore, a supreme demand of faith; we seek it because it is entreating us from the bottom of our hearts. Yet, since all do not have the same awareness of God, unity is not approached from the same angle; it expands or contracts within men in proportion to their hearts’ relationship with God. Some do not feel it at all; others even deny it. It is a test of faith…

The unity of men is an ideal that surpasses human strength if it is sought at a divine level. It flows, as a necessity, as an inevitable and direct consequence, from the union of man with God… The first commandment says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and the second: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Scripture affirms here that the second commandment springs from the first… The second without the first would have no value; it would indeed be near to sin…

If there were indeed a spiritual renaissance, a deep fervor for the faith, unity would have taken the form of a collective and individual return to God, a sweeping movement for conversion, repentance, and begging God for forgiveness — as has always happened to God’s people after a period of half-heartedness or aberration…

In order for us to secure for the weak and persecuted Churches the true meaning of “Christian unity” in their journey through history and in their encounters with temporal situations, and in order for the divine consciousness to rise in them, the first necessity is that they should understand that Christian unity is a state of divine weakness over against the world — like that of their Master, who surrendered His infinite power to be crucified by anyone who wished and in whatever way they wished.

Christ, desiring to reveal to us “the strength of His weakness”… drew His disciples’ attention to it at the very moment of His testing, although He was being subjected to the most appalling trials that a defenseless man could endure… The Church that has temporal power cannot taste a crucifixion that is forced upon it, for one cannot be crucified except through weakness, like the Master of all, who “was crucified in weakness”… The cross in our life is a foundation; the cross is “the power of God for salvation. . .” and His “power is made perfect in weakness”. With our free will we pray for weakness, and we bear it without fear if it comes to us, for with weakness there is always grace… We wish and we pray that the Churches may have a unity, divine both in appearance and in essence, a unity above the realm of time