2009 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: Day 1

Christian communities face to face with old and new divisions

Flowing from the central text taken from Ezekiel, our reflection during the “eight days” of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity brings us to a deeper awareness of how the unity of the church is also for the sake of the renewal of human community. With this awareness comes a grave responsibility: that all those who confess Christ as Lord should seek to fulfil his prayer “that they may all be one so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17: 21). This is why the eight days begin with a reflection on the unity of Christians.

Contemplating our doctrinal divisions, and our scandalous history of separation - and sometimes even hatred - among Christians, we pray that the God who breathes the Spirit of life into dry bones, and who moulds in his hands our unity amidst diversity, will breathe life and reconciliation upon our dryness and division today. On this and each of the eight days, we are invited to pray for situations in our world where reconciliation is needed, especially attentive to the role that the unity of Christians will play in bringing about this reconciliation.


Scripture

Ezekiel 37:15-19, 22-24a, One in your hand.
Psalm 103:8-13, 18, The Lord is merciful and gracious, ... abounding in steadfast love.
1 Corinthians 3:3-7, 21-23, Jealousy and quarreling among you... you belong to Christ.
John 17:17-21, That they may all be one… so that the world may believe.


Meditation

Christians are called to be instruments of God's reconciling love in a world marked by separation and alienation. Baptized and professing faith in the crucified and risen Christ, we are a people who belong to Christ, a people sent forth to be Christ's body in and for the world. Christ prayed for this for his disciples: may they be one, so that the world may believe.

Divisions between Christians on fundamental matters of faith and discipleship seriously wound our ability to witness before the world. In Korea, as in many other nations, the Christian gospel was brought by conflicting voices, speaking a discordant proclamation of the Good News. There is a temptation to see current divisions as a natural legacy of our Christian history, rather than as an internal contradiction of the message that God has reconciled the world in Christ.

Ezekiel's vision of two sticks, inscribed with the names of the divided kingdoms of ancient Israel, becoming one in God's hand, is a powerful image of the power of God to bring about reconciliation. It is a highly evocative metaphor for divided Christians, prefiguring the source of reconciliation found at the heart of the Christian proclamation itself. On the two pieces of wood which form the cross of Christ, the Lord of history takes upon himself the wounds and divisions of humanity. In the totality of Jesus' gift of himself on the cross, he holds together human sin and God's redemptive steadfast love. To be a Christian is to be baptized into this death, through which the Lord, in his boundless mercy, etches the names of wounded humanity onto the wood of the cross, restoring our relationship with God and with each other.

Christian unity is a communion grounded in our belonging to Christ, to God. Prayer for Christian unity is an acknowledgment of our trust in God, an opening of ourselves fully to that Spirit. Linked to our other efforts for unity-dialogue, common witness and mission-prayer for unity is a privileged instrument through which the Holy Spirit is making that reconciliation in Christ visibly manifest.


Prayer

God of compassion, you have loved and forgiven us in Christ, and sought to reconcile the entire human race in that redeeming love. Look with favor upon us, who work and pray for the unity of divided Christian communities. Grant us the experience of being brothers and sisters in your love. May we be one, one in your hand. Amen.