God can get it done

Today's readings at mass really made an impact on me. I was most moved by the second reading, Eph 4:1-6. Paul tells the Ephesians (and us) that we should strive to "preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit..." But we are not one body, in fact we are far, far from that hope. With something like 20,000 Christian denominations and counting, if Paul weren't in Heaven, he would be turning over in his grave!

A number of years ago I worked for a man who was (and maybe still is) a staunch atheist. He and I would often discuss matters of theology and philosophy. There was one argument he made for which I had no answer. He would often say, "Josh, how can you expect me to become a Christian when Christians can't even define what is means to be a Christian?" Indeed, the disunity of the church is scandalous. How often has it thwarted evangelization?

Paul tells us to be one body, because the Body of Christ is not schitzophenic. It does not have multiple personalities, multiple theologies,or multiple liturgies. Why should it be one? Because, as Paul explains, the call we have received to be Christian is a call to be one body. That is a big part of being Christian.

But how do we become one, now, at this point in time? The denominations are so different, so separated. It seems impossible. Let's forget for a moment about the theological differences, and just look at the practical ones. Different churches have different ordination requirements, how do we reconcile those? How about communion, how often should we have it? We Catholics believe the Eucharist is the real presence of Christ, can Protestants just accept that? What about statues? And the church leadership, bishops, deacons, elders, presbyters - how are these to be joined together? Often in business to corporations of 10,000 people will try to merge and fail, because their cultures are so different. How can over one billion Christians, all with different cultures and beliefs, become one?
At this point during mass, I was really starting to wonder if Christian unity is anything more than a pipe dream.

Then the gospel was read.

I suppose the disciples kind of felt a bit like me, seeing those 5000+ hungry people. How are we going to accomplish this? - they must have thought. Phillip even verbalizes these thoughts to Jesus (not that he needed to) by quantifying the situation. The answer to the apostles implicit question is what struck me: no. That's it. No, they are not going to accomplish this task. Jesus will.

How simple! How beautifully simple! Feeding 5000 with five loaves and two fishes requires a miracle, plain and simple. Now I don't know any human who can perform a miracle, so God has to be the one to do this. And as the deacon at our parish to eloquently pointed out in his homily, if you weren't paying attention, you almost wouldn't know the miracle had occurred. There was no announcement, not even any thunder. Just a miracle, subtle and effective.

I think this is the way the church will be united. It will be a miracle. The task seems (and is) too big for us, for any of us. But I hope and pray, with John Paul II, that while the first millennium was a millennium of Christian unity (despite heresy and persecution), and the second millennium was a millennium of Christian disunity, the third millennium will be a millennium of Christian reunity. Please Lord, make us one!