“To love is to will the good of the other.” – St. Thomas Aquinas
Our culture is now more contentious than ever before. Social media has given us false authority to detach our common humanity – our shared Imago Dei – from our personal convictions. Rather than “will the good of the other,” we are built up by tearing each other down. We see this on our Late shows, our news, our YouTube personalities, our Facebook pages and even in one-on-one conversation. As believers, we either see this as the “evil” side of the spectrum trying to overtake the “good” side (but then we must agree on what the “good” side is), or, we possibly see it as forces outside ourselves causing hate and disunity – with a more disturbing agenda in mind. Surely, this is the moment when the Church will rise to heal the world through the unified Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – the Savior of the World! And yet, there is a sad sense of irony to that statement.
On the eve of his death by crucifixion, Jesus prayed a theologically rich prayer, which we call his “High Priestly Prayer,” and asked the Father that “they (believers) may be one even as we (Christ and the Father) are one.” Can you imagine if Christians had a sort of “Trinitarian Oneness?”
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17: 20, 21)
Jesus gives us a glimpse of what could be the result of this type of unity: that the world may believe. Whether we admit it or not, our unity as Christ-followers is directly linked to our mandate for this world – the Great Commission.
To be fair, there have been significant, sincere efforts towards ecumenism, which are to be celebrated (one remembers Pope John Paul II clutching Billy Graham’s thumb, and telling him, “We are brothers”), and we can speak at length of Christians overcoming centuries of conflict for the sake of the Christ. However, despite these efforts, on almost every point of Christian doctrine there is discord between denominations. To be clear, these are ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s body. We cannot be the light of the world effectively if we aren’t truly one body. As Christ put it, a “house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matt 12:25)
“Where there is division, there is sin.” (Origen)
When the Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the church in Corinth, he immediately called out the disunity among believers – with a sense of urgency:
“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1 Cor 1:10)
He then addressed the specific reports of disagreements among believers:
“What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:12, 13)
We must drive the point home by playfully changing the names:
“What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Calvin,” or “I follow Knox,” or “I follow Wesley,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Luther crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Luther?”
Of course, we could add other names to this example – even more obscure names like Joseph Smith – but the result remains the same.
At this point, it seems right to briefly address these wounds to unity.
Historically speaking, if you were to draw a line from the time of Christ until the present age, you would find three key moments of division (excluding of course, fragments lost to non-Christian, gnostic heresies such as Arianism):
1) The disagreement with the Egyptian (Coptic, Oriental) church in 451.
2) The East-West Schism of 1054.
3) The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
(As an aside, Protestants must be careful not to romanticize the Reformation as if it were a sort of mythological story of triumph – where Robin Hood upsets the unjust throne of Prince John – or worse, where God’s chosen people escaped the tyrannical rule of Egypt. To hold a view of this sort is to be ignorant of the whole picture. It is worth noting that after this religious and political division, our beloved Christianity shattered into thousands of denominations, and as we all know, blood has been shed over petty differences.)
Aside from the ripple effect of the Protestant Reformation, the earlier disagreements were relatively minor in retrospect – especially in regards to doctrine – and the universal Church still collectively held to much of the same teachings (Eucharist, Baptism, Sacraments, Holy Scriptures, etc). It wasn’t until the Reformation, where many (and at times, contradictory) ideas appeared. This makes sense in light of that period in history – particularly regarding the printing press; the political tensions of the North and South; and the pre-Enlightenment mentality that was starting to rise. Ironically, Martin Luther himself recognized the divisions immediately happening at that time:
“This [denomination] won’t have baptism, that [denomination] denies the efficacy of the Lord’s supper; a third, puts a world between this and the last judgment; others teach that Jesus Christ is not God; some say this, others that; and there are almost as many sects and beliefs as there are heads.” (Martin Luther, Letter to Antwerp, 1525)
“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:4-6)
We can celebrate the fact that believers on all sides of the aisle hold to the above verse, and many of us long for the unity of “one body and one Spirit.” This we can attribute to the Fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts. But now we must ask a sincere question: How do we heal from this sinful state of division? Or, rather: How can we draw closer together, to advance our Father’s kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven? How can we be one so that the world may believe? The answer isn’t in a chorus of “kumbaya” – ignoring significant differences – as this wouldn’t be true to our convictions. To heal takes time. It takes a change of heart. We must first be willing to look past ourselves – our tradition, our convictions – and to be deep in history (which means to know where we came from, our heritage, and why we believe what we profess); rather than holding spiritual beliefs based on comfortable assumptions. To do this is to pursue the virtue of humility, which is presumably characteristic of a true Christian.
To drive this point further, it is true that many denominations are a result of restorationism; which is the pursuit of rediscovering the early church (the “true” church) based on Sola scriptura. While admirable, these movements tend to be led by individuals and not a collective whole, and are ignorant of the history of the church, and use proof texts from the Holy Scriptures that are out of context at best, or heretical at worst. As a possible step forward, it would seem logical to investigate the Ante-Nicene Fathers, who have tremendous testimony (undoubtedly full of the Holy Spirit) – who were persecuted under different emperors – and who wrote to combat heresies on their way to martyrdom. In fact, some of these Fathers are ‘apostles of apostles’ – and have much to say regarding Christian Practice and belief in the decades immediately after Christ.
(As an aside, we must also remember that it is the witness of these Church Fathers that we credit with validating the texts in our New Testament canon, as they quoted from those texts before we had complied them – at the end of the 4th Century).
Finally, many of the doctrines Christians assume always existed – such as the doctrine of Christ as one in Being with the Father, and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son (I.E. the Trinity) – and the person of Christ as two natures, divine and human, united in one person – were a result of unified Church Councils opposing heresies that arose in the first few centuries. Whether we admit it or not, we are standing on the shoulders of the Church Fathers. One of our beloved early Fathers is St. Irenaeus – who was taught by Polycarp (who was taught by John the Apostle). His writings (Against Heresies) contain significant theological truths, as well as a window into the beliefs and state of the church in the 2nd Century:
“Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and their disciples … guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches, and hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth.” – (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 1, 10, 1-2)
One further thought, it’s useful to liken these divisions to a sort of “divorce” – and why is divorce allowed to be pursued? – as Christ said, because of our “hardness of heart.” Healing starts with the softening of our hearts, the virtue of charity, the Fruits of the Spirit, and an openness to look past our understanding.
We must encourage each other as believers to “know our roots” (one might think of an Ancestry TV show) and not to settle for our own personal heritage. We must pursue what does unite us: the traditional faith that was passed down from the beginning. For as we know, Jesus promised the Spirit would guide [us] into all the truth and that means throughout the centuries. We have a cloud of witnesses who stand before us.
To quote the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which integrates the previously stated Origen quote, beautifully:
“Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.” (CCC 817)
“So that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Traditional Faith Blog 