Isaiah
62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, John 2:1-12
On the Epistle - Christian Unity
The three tenors Jose
Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti were performing together in
Los Angeles. A reporter asked them about rivalry among them, and they said
there was none. But the reporter was not satisfied and kept coming back to
the issue of rivalry among the three superstars. Then Domingo explained, “You
have to put all of your concentration into opening your heart to the music.
You can’t be rivals when you’re together making music. You can’t be rivals
when you’re together making music.” As Christians are we called to be rivals
or are we called to make music together?
This week we begin the
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, more simply known as Christian Unity Week
(January 18-25). That the different Christian churches together agree to set
aside one week for intensive prayer and action in view of Christian unity
shows that they all feel the need for more unity among believers in Christ.
The World Christian Encyclopedia has documented 34,000 different Christian
denominations. The figure keeps rising. Many Christian churches today spend
much of their resources not in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to the
ends of the earth but in fighting and cannibalizing other Christian churches.
To maintain their identity and show that they are distinct from other
Christian churches, they emphasize their differences rather that the things
they have in common. They fight each other and forget that as Christians we
are called to make music together in the world. This is a misunderstanding of
what Christianity is all about, as Paul tells us in the second reading.
Now there are varieties of
gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same
Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who
activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the
Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
The varieties of gifts God
gives to His daughters and sons for the common good, we have selfishly used
as grounds for rivalry. As a parent, how do you feel when you bring home
gifts for your children as a way of making the whole family happy, and they
start a fight. Imagine then how God feels at the way His children are using
His gifts as cause for sibling rivalry and violence. And God has a very large
family with many, many children. The disunity and infighting among Christians
is an abuse of God’s gifts. It is a scandal to the world. It is a sin for
which we all need to repent.
Many people feel uneasy
when they hear of Christian unity. They fear that Christian unity means
putting everyone into the same mould, the same form of worship, the same way
of serving God. No, Christian unity is not Christian uniformity. God gives
His children varieties of gifts. Some are more intellectual and love to spend
hours reading and reflecting of the Word of God, others are more charismatic
and would rather sing praises, pray in tongues, shout alleluia and make a
joyful noise to the Lord, and yet others are more service oriented and would
rather spend their time helping the sick and feeding the hungry. Paul
encourages us to engage in different services and ministries because we have
different spiritual gifts. But he warns that we should not be so engrossed in
the various works we do for the Lord, that we forget the one Lord of the
work. In the various services we see diversity, in the one Lord we see unity.
Christian unity, therefore, is a unity in diversity.
The disunity in
Christianity is a scandal to the world that we are called to bring to God. It
is a scandal that weakens the Christian message and witness. What moral right
have we to ask the world to reconcile their differences when we as Christians
cannot reconcile our own differences? Let us today ask God’s forgiveness for
all of God’s children for the sin of disunity. Let us pray for Christian
unity, and resolve to extend a hand of reconciliation and friendship to our
estranged brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Lord, hear the prayers of
your people and bring the hearts of believers together in your praise and in
common sorrow for their sins. Heal all divisions among Christians that we may
rejoice in the perfect unity of your Church and move together as one to
eternal life in your kingdom. Amen.
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St
John in his gospel mentions Mary, the mother of Jesus two times: at the
marriage feast at Cana, the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus and at
the crucifixion, the end of it. That could be a way of telling us that Mary did
not only play the passive role of being the physical mother of Jesus; that she
was also actively involved with Jesus in the work of our redemption. In today's
gospel, we hear of the marriage feast at Cana. Mary, the mother of Jesus was
invited, as well as Jesus himself and his disciples. As the wedding feast went
on, the wine ran out. Mary went out of her way to intercede with Jesus and
Jesus performed what John tells us was his very first miracle.
If
this was Jesus' very first miracle, how then did Mary know that Jesus could do
it? Good mothers know their children. They know the hidden talents and
potentialities of their children. There are many young men and women who have
gone on to accomplish great things in life because their mothers believed in
them and encouraged them.
A
more fascinating question arising from the story is this: Did Mary know all
those thirty years she lived with Jesus that she was living with a
wonder-worker and yet never she ask him to multiply her bread, turn the water
on the dining table into wine, or double her money to make ends meet? How come
she never asked Jesus to use his miraculous power to help her out but she was
quick to ask him to use it and help others? Think of it. If you have a child
who has a miraculous power to double money for other kids at school, won't you
ask him to double yours at home too? After all, one would argue, charity begins
at home. But for Mary and for Jesus the needs of others come first.
Take
the case of Jesus. He knew he had this power to perform miracles. After his
forty days fast in the desert he was hungry and the devil suggested it to him
to turn some stones into bread and eat, but he did not do it. Yet he went out
and multiplied bread for crowds of his followers. What are they telling us,
Mary and Jesus, through their actions? They are telling us that God's gifts to
individuals are not meant primarily for their or their families' benefit but
for the service of others. That is what St Paul also tells us in the second
reading when he enumerates the many different gifts of the Holy Spirit to
different persons and adds that "to each person is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good," (1 Corinthians 12:6)
not for personal profit.
Today,
then, is a good day to ask ourselves: "What gifts has God given me? Am I
using these gifts mainly for my own personal profit or for the service of
others in the community?" We sometimes wonder why there are no more
manifestations of the Holy Spirit like we read in the Bible. Maybe the reason
is that we have grown more selfish. If we began using the little gifts we have
for the common good -- like the gift of praying, singing, teaching, caring,
sharing, encouraging, supporting, motivating, writing, etc. -- then these gifts
will probably begin to grow and soon we will begin to see miracles. Concern for
others is the beginning of miracles.
One
of the latter day saints who worked astonishing miracles was St Francis of
Assisi. He was able to do so much because he gave himself completely to the
service of God and the good of others. Let us, therefore, conclude with the
famous prayer of St Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
I pray God to grant me my own spiritual grace and make it manifest.
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