Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - World Day of Prayer for Christian Unity Week

Homily by: Fr. Damian MacPherson, Office of Ecumenism, Archdiocese of Toronto

January 18, 2009

Was it curiosity?  Was it determination of was it faith that allowed Samuel to persist in his repeated response, Here I am?  Notice that Samuel did not say, Here I am Lord, but simply “Here I am” was his response to Eli.  The fact is that the young boy Samuel did not know the Lord and that is why he returns to Eli again and again, until Eli teaches the young Samuel how to respond to the Lord.

This experience reminds us, who know and have been introduced to the Lord, that we may all too often misunderstand or misread the Lord’s communication, most especially as it manifests itself in and through others, whom God uses to convey his message.  With humility we realize that, like Samuel, we may not ourselves realize or recognize the call of God spoken to us.  It may be others like Eli who discern and identify for us the divine presence and are able to pass it on to us, helping us to move forward and make new judgments with clarity and confidence.

It is to our real advantage when we can discern the voice of God in the quiet space of a church pew, in the presence of the sanctuary, or some tranquil place where our own breathing breaks the silence of our surroundings.  Such though is not always the case, and thus the need to be open to others.
The second point about this experience of Samuel is that he is called by God in a time of spiritual desolation where religious corruption abounded, political danger lurked everywhere and social upheaval cried out for justice.  It was not a pleasant state of affairs, for and among a people who had been especially called, singled-out and chosen by God to be His people.  Into the mix of Israel’s divided state of being, Samuel, now a prophet of the Lord, is the new voice, hoping to bring a new beginning for Israel.  Samuel’s prophetic mission can best be summed up by his call to the Israelites to a new obedience.  Despite a stubborn and stiff-necked people, God’s resolve is to do a new thing; to overcome their divisions and restore a new spirit of unity and harmony.

As sure and certain as we are present here, on this holy ground, overcoming separation and division is what the God of Israel, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, calls each of us to as Christians.

Paul establishes the principle of unity into which we all have been called by reminding us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and it is that Spirit which calls us and the entire Christian Church to a visible and organic unity sharing one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

In today’s gospel the disciples are excited to know where Jesus is staying because in Jesus they have found the ultimate source of all unity.

Today, when we survey the divided state of Christians, we would have to admit that together we share a certain stubborn and stiff-necked response, which calls for a new obedience as well.  Our common failure to find the way and means to establish the solidarity brought about by a united Christendom remains a scandal to the entire world and has served to create a church which otherwise would manifest itself with strength in a spirit of unity and togetherness.

While there has been a remarkable amount of success and achievement derived from our common ecumenical efforts, especially since the Second Vatican Council, our continuing division should bring a conscious unsatisfied sense about ourselves.  Given that the Church has been divided more than 1,000 years, the danger is that we accept this state of affairs as the new normal, paying less attention to a state of affairs which remains wholly unacceptable.

Speaking to our divided existence, John Paul II reminded us that:
We pay a high price for the walls of division, which separate and divide us.  [division] openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the Good News to every creature (Ut unum sint #6)

Part of the new obedience we are being called to is to become actively aware and truly convinced that being ecumenical is not a choice we arbitrarily make, but is a responsibility we must necessarily assume.  Situating the role of ecumenism in the Roman Catholic Church it was John Paul who firmly and decisively noted that

It is absolutely clear that ecumenism, the movement promoting Christian unity is not some sort of “appendage” which is added to the church’s traditional activity.  Rather ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does. 

This, no doubt, is why the same pontiff stated that you can no longer be Catholic and not be ecumenical.  To this same cause Benedict put the Church on notice when, in his first homily following his election as Pope, he firmly stated that he would spare no efforts in working for the unity of the Christian Church.

It is not expected that we would wade into the many theological dialogues which invest their time and effort producing new formulas of understanding and agreements.  That, we might say, is reserved for the few, yet the concerns of ecumenism must be for the many and that is why I say that we , each one of us, is called to be spiritual ecumenists who make their most important contribution by way of prayer, personally, communally and ecumenically.

When brothers and sisters who are not in perfect communion with one another come together to pray, the Second Vatican Council defines their prayer as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement.
How could we exempt ourselves from making good on a promise to be spiritual ecumenists, especially on hearing the passionate plea of Jesus to the Father in the Gospel of John (17:12).  Among the last words he addresses to the Father is his appeal …that they all may be one Father as you are in me.  That they also may be one in us so that the world may believe that the Father has sent the Son.

Today and in the days to come I invite us to an obedience, which reminds us of how and why and when we should pray for Christian unity, knowing with St. Paul that we should pray without ceasing.