Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 477

I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;  
one Body and one Spirit....

Saint Paul saw the unity of the church as a fundamental value to which every Christian should aspire. It is surpassed only by faith because we are joined by the Mother of Jesus and all the saints and martyrs of old. We pray with them faithfully and can risk no separation between them and us. No one prays to the Lord alone; no one can repeat the Lord's Prayer or Mary's salutations without hearing millions of voices joined in the same prayer. 

Any why would anyone want to pray apart from us? 

The emergent Church recognized the unity we must have as western and eastern rites appeared and solidified in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Because we prayed in many languages and with innumerable accents for each language, we had to work all the more to make sure we were praying with the One Mind of the Church. 

Even Emperor Constantine recognized the danger of factionalism when he called the Council of Nicea to settle the date of Easter. He didn't want his one empire to be split religiously; and alternative calendars, liturgies. rites, or languages could lead first to suspicion; and then hostility, strife, and war. (The Council agreed on a date that would be universally honored, but Pope Gregory's adjustment in 1582 disrupted that agreement.) 

The Catholic Church struggles to maintain that unity today as the world around us changes so rapidly. When definitions change significantly, common understandings shatter into many opinions and we must work to reunite with newer, more accurate words. But the greater challenge comes from the sin that divides the human race. Opinions are like possessions and we surrender them reluctantly. 

I saw this challenge recently when the Supreme Council  of the Knights of Columbus directed all its councils and assemblies to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as the Congress of the United States had defined it. Many members, committed as we are to the Right to Life, had added a phrase -- "born and unborn" -- to the final words "...with liberty and justice for all." 

But the phrase separated Knights from the very people they claim to stand with, other Americans. Their professed allegiance was splintered. Some Knights argued, "It's a free country and I should say it as I want!" but that only added heat to the disruption. After some lively discussion the two groups I attend readily acceded to the Supreme Council's decree. Everyone agreed that. "Our solidarity is more important than my opinions."

I see similar divisiveness over so-called "Inclusive Language." I'd be willing to go along with it, but I want to know who is demanding it, and why, and what they might want next. I agreed when he and she became they; but when they told me some misguided person had assigned maleness to me when I was born, I saw treachery in the entire scheme. It's another form of Marxism; and despite its appeal to compassion for the underprivileged it's a power play by unidentified conspirators. It works because many people suppose the definitions are fluid, truth is malleable, and consensus must obey the powerful parties who decide what truth is. 

"Striving to preserve the unity of the spirit" finally means that we must share our opinions, work toward consensus, and accept the decisions of those who are authorized to lead. Fidelity is obedience, and obedience is fidelity. We embrace it along with all the other crosses the Lord has assigned to us.