Bishop Bambera’s Homily for the Ecumenical Service of Prayer
Bishop Bambera’s Homily for the Ecumenical Service of Prayer
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Saint Peter’s Cathedral
January 25, 2011
My brothers and sisters in ministry – dear brothers and sisters in Christ – for just over a century now, beginning substantially with the Edinburgh Conference that took place in June of 1910, Christians from different traditions have gathered together in prayer just as we do here today in this venerable Cathedral. It is a privilege for me to welcome you to this time-honored gathering during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. With all my heart, I proclaim to you how good it is for brothers and sisters to gather together in prayer as we open our hearts to the one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This Week of Prayer focuses attention on the visible unity of Christians and challenges the commitment of all who believe in Christ. In imitation of Jesus himself, we are called time and time again to reflect upon the prayer that he uttered to his Father the night before he died: “That they may all be one … so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).
In this great prayer from the 17th chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus asks at least four times that his disciples be “one,” as he and his Father are one. But this unity for which Jesus prays is not an end in itself. It has a purpose. In the prayer, Jesus twice notes its end: so that the world may believe. We gather in prayer today not simply to satisfy an inner need, as powerful as it might be. We gather in prayer today not merely to fulfill a tradition. We gather in prayer today as a visible sign to the world of our communion with the Lord Jesus and our mission to lead others to embrace His life and salvation.
It’s interesting to note that one of the fundamental issues discussed at that Edinburgh Conference, which I referred to a moment ago, was that of the difficulty of proposing in a credible way to the non-Christian world the Gospel proclamation by Christians who were divided among themselves. If Christians present themselves divided to a world that does not know Christ, will the proclamation of Christ as Lord and Savior of the world and our peace be at all credible? Sadly we know the answer: No. No.
So, from the very beginning of the modern ecumenical movement, a beginning rooted in the prayer of Jesus himself, the relationship between unity and mission has been an essential dimension of all ecumenical action.
This year the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” presents to us for our reflection and prayer a passage from the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Prepared by Palestinian Christians, this year’s theme reminds us of the life of the earliest Christians. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
Within this theme, four elements are presented which were marks of the early Christian Church and which are essential to the life of the Christian Community wherever it exists. First, the Word was passed on by the apostles. Secondly, fellowship was an important mark of the early believers whenever they met together. A third mark of the early Church was the celebration of the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread. The fourth aspect is the offering of constant prayer. These four elements are the pillars of the life of the Church, and of its unity.
For as powerful as these elements are as they reflect the life of the early Church, when we listen to the writer of Acts explain them in the few verses that follow, we discover the substance of what is required to make sense of such a vision. Listen to the message of Acts 43-47:
“Every person felt awe because of the wonders and signs being done through the apostles. All the believers were together. They held all things in common. They were selling their property and possessions, and were distributing them to everyone according to each one’s need. Every day they continued together in the temple. They broke bread in their houses. They shared food with gladness and in simplicity of heart. They praised God and had favor among all the people. Every day the Lord was adding those who were being saved to the community” (Acts 2:43-47).
What an incredible experience of unity and mission. Through prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist, the breaking of bread, the community was bound together by the Lord. So deep was their conviction in the power of his presence in their lives that they sold their possessions to provided for one another. And every day – because of the tangible nature of their unity – the Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved.
Reflect once again on the great prayer of Jesus in Saint John’s Gospel. “That they may all be one … so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Remember that the unity for which Jesus prays is not an end in itself. It has a purpose: that the world may believe.
Luke’s portrait of this first community is obviously idealized. Not that the first believers could not have been intense in their unity and joy; they probably were, even though Luke himself would later show in the same Acts of the Apostles some aspects of controversy and failure that occurred very quickly. Nonetheless, Luke communicated to his readers in vivid fashion that the gift of the Spirit brought about a community which realized the highest aspirations of human longing: unity, peace, the praise of God and an innate need to share their joy with others.
The passage from the second chapter of Acts is an idealized depiction of the early Church. But Luke’s appropriation of this ideal hardly makes it irrelevant to searching hearts. Quite the contrary, Luke’s description has provided a vision of what the Church might be in its finest realization and as such provides us with the necessary building blocks if we are to be credible witnesses of Jesus in our world today.
So consider the life of the early Christian Community as reflected in Acts. Don’t we speak more clearly to the heart of what we believe when the pattern of our lives reflects the Lord whom we worship? Don’t our words become far more credible when mirrored by gospel living? Of course. Yet the best of us tire, we succumb to the harsh realities of life and we set aside the ideal that God has placed before us. We often lose our way and at times we fail to embrace the way of Jesus in our lives.
Over one half of a century ago, the great prophet of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, offered challenging insight into how we Christians witness to the world. He was asked: “You speak of the lifestyle and teaching of Jesus so often, why don’t you become a Christian?” In response, Gandhi replied: “I will become a Christian, when I begin to see the followers of Jesus living their master’s teaching.”
Gandhi’s observations may very well have touched the heart of the problem that we Christians face. The responsibility for our divisions lies with us; they are the results of our own actions and inactions. We need to change our prayer, asking God to change us so that we may actively work for unity. We are ready enough to pray for unity, but prayer alone can become a comfortable substitute for action.
Our brokenness is a reality that lies at the very heart of who we are as Christians. … The separation that exists between believers in Christ sadly is one very significant sign giving evidence to us and to others of a world in need of redemption.
We’re all aware of the challenges to Christian unity. They are many and they are real. There are disappointments along the journey; setbacks in the midst of glorious achievements. Nor should any of us side step the truth and the core of our beliefs for the sake of portraying a unity that is essentially false and empty.
But make no mistake about it. There are countless blessings and signs of hope which have also marked our ecumenical journey – the greatest of which is our common witness to the love of Christ within us. The Acts of the Apostles with its idealized depiction of the earliest days of the Church along with its acknowledgement of struggle and strife in the same Church gives testimony to the power of God working in and through a broken, fragile world to bring life and salvation.
Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit to Great Britain this past September, spoke of the struggles that we continue to face as we work towards unity. He reminded us of the potential within ourselves when we begin to embrace in our lives the marks of the early Church – when we listen with our hearts to the Word of God, when we are humble enough to walk together as brothers and sisters, and when we pour out our lives to the Lord in prayer.
But for all of the lofty words that he shared, the heart of Pope Benedict’s message was simple and real. He noted: “Dialogue among Christians needs to take place on a number of different levels, and should not be limited to formal discussions. The dialogue of life involves simply living alongside one another and learning from one another in such a way as to grow in mutual knowledge and respect. The dialogue of action brings us together in concrete forms of collaboration, as we apply our insight from our particular traditions to the task of promoting integral human development, working for peace, justice and the stewardship of creation.”
My friends, we engage the dialogues of life and action better than we might realize – globally, as Christians from all backgrounds have and continue to work together in Haiti and poverty ridden parts of our world – in our neighborhoods, where Christians and people from other faith traditions join hands and hearts to feed the hungry, cloth the naked and give shelter to the homeless – and in our work places and in and through our churches, as we give witness to our faith in Jesus Christ together in countless numbers of ways. While we have miles to go in our journey towards full communion among the members of the Church of Christ, we have reason to celebrate and rejoice because of the signs of hope that have emerged along the way.
Life and action – unity and mission: qualities that reflect the life of the early Christian Church and words that flow from the prayer of Jesus himself. “That they may all be one … so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). May Jesus’ prayer be our prayer. May we walk with one another as brothers and sisters and so become credible witnesses to the world, of Jesus our Savior, who binds us together in peace.
Amen.
