5.2. The Division of Christians
Unity is the law of the life of the Trinitarian
God revealed to the world by the Son (cf. Jn 17:21), who, in the power
of the Holy Spirit, loving until the end (cf. Jn 13:1), communicates
this life to his own. This unity should be the source and the form of the
communion of mankind’s life with the Triune God. If Christians live this law of
mutual love, so as to be one “as the Father and the Son are one,” the result
will be that “the world will believe that the Son was sent by the Father” (Jn
17:21) and “everyone will know that these are his disciples” (Jn 13:35).
Unfortunately, it has not happened this way, particularly in the millennium
which has just ended and in which great divisions appeared among Christians, in
open contradiction to the explicit will of Christ, as if he himself were
divided (cf. 1 Cor 1:13). Vatican Council II judges this fact in this
way: “Certainly such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, is a
scandal to the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching of the
Gospel to every creature.”70
The principal divisions during the past
millennium which “affect the seamless garment of Christ”71 are the
schism between the Eastern and Western Churches at the beginning of this
millennium, and in the West - four centuries later - the laceration caused by
those events “commonly referred to as the Reformation.”72 It is true
that “these various divisions differ greatly from one another not only by
reason of their origin, place, and time, but above all by reason of the nature
and gravity of questions concerning faith and the structure of the
Church.”73 In the schism of the eleventh century, cultural and
historical factors played an important role, while the doctrinal dimension
concerned the authority of the Church and the Bishop of Rome, a topic which at
that time had not reached the clarity it has today, thanks to the doctrinal
development of this millennium. In the case of the Reformation, however, other
areas of revelation and doctrine were objects of controversy.
The way that has opened to overcome these
differences is that of doctrinal development animated by mutual love. The lack
of supernatural love, of agape, seems to have been common to both the
breaches. Given that this charity is the supreme commandment of the Gospel,
without which all the rest is but “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor
13:1), such a deficiency needs to be seen in all its seriousness before the
Risen One, the Lord of the Church and of history. It is by virtue of the recognition
of this lack that Pope Paul VI asked pardon of God and of the “separated
brethren,” who may have felt offended “by us” (the Catholic Church).74
In 1965, in the climate produced by the
Second Vatican Council, Patriarch Athenagoras, in his dialogue with Paul VI,
emphasized the theme of the restoration (apokatastasis) of mutual love,
so essential after a history laden with opposition, mutual mistrust, and
antagonism.75 It was a question of a past that, through memory, was
still exerting its influence. The events of 1965 (culminating on December 7,
1965, with the abolition of the anathemas of 1054 between East and West)
represent a confession of the fault contained in the earlier mutual exclusion,
so as to purify the memory of the past and generate a new one. The basis of
this new memory cannot be other than mutual love or, better, the renewed
commitment to live it. This is the commandment ante omnia (1 Pt
4:8) for the Church in the East and in the West. In such a way, memory frees us
from the prison of the past and calls Catholics and Orthodox, as well as
Catholics and Protestants, to be the architects of a future more in conformity
with the new commandment. Pope Paul VI’s and Patriarch Athenagoras’ testimony
to this new memory is in this sense exemplary.
Particularly problematic for the path toward
the unity of Christians is the temptation to be guided – or even determined –
by cultural factors, historical conditioning, and those prejudices which feed
the separation and mutual distrust among Christians, even though they do not
have anything to do with matters of faith. The Church’s sons and daughters
should sincerely examine their consciences to see whether they are actively
committed to obeying the imperative of unity and are living an “interior
conversion,” because “it is from newness of attitudes of mind (cf. Eph
4:23), from self-denial and generous love, that desires for unity take their
rise and grow toward maturity.”76 In the period from the close of the
Council until today, resistance to its message has certainly saddened the
Spirit of God (cf. Eph 4:30). To the extent that some Catholics are
pleased to remain bound to the separations of the past, doing nothing to remove
the obstacles that impede unity, one could justly speak of solidarity in the
sin of division (cf. 1 Cor 1:10-16). In this context the words of the
Decree on Ecumenism could be recalled: “With humble prayer we ask pardon of God
and of the separated brethren, as we forgive those who trespass against
us.”77
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