Pastor's Corner: Christian unity

All this week, I have been getting up at the crack of - O MY GOD IT IS EARLY - to gather for prayer and breakfast. The reason we are gathering is to celebrate and pray for Christian Unity. The theme for the week is Do Good; Seek Justice. This theme comes from the book of the Prophet Isaiah 1:17.

All this week we have reflected on how to learn to live and act justly, how acting justly is in accord with God's will for us, how Jesus modeled living a just life, how living lives of mercy and humility lead us to living just lives, how we are to observe the lives of those around us to see how injustice effects human lives, and how actively doing justice to our neighbors is indeed doing justice for and to God. All very good stuff, but what does all this have to do with Christian unity?

My name is Deacon Tim Maroney. I am a Roman Catholic and I have been all my life. To be honest, part of my life I didn't want to have anything to do with any religion. But here I am on staff at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church for the last 34 years and very much in love with my ministry and my Catholic faith. In all truth I don't want to be a member of another religious denomination. As a member of the Greater Havre Ministerial Association, I associate with pastors from many of the other Christian churches in Havre - this is a blessing for me. It is my belief that none of those other pastors would want to leave their faith community for another religion. It would be inappropriate for any one of the members of the Greater Havre Ministerial Association to expect the others to leave their religious tradition and join theirs. So, it is safe to say that the purpose of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is not about trying to unify all of Christianity under one religious denomination even though I think that would be a good thing.

Throughout its existence, the Body of Christ that we call the Christian Church has been plagued with dissent and division. This is because of our propensity toward sin. Every time the Church divides because of a disagreement, its ability to proclaim the Good News of Jesus crucified and risen is diminished and we become less effective at doing the work Jesus calls us to.

The purpose of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is to pray so we can put aside those things of our perspective religious traditions that separate us and focus on the one vitally important thing that unifies us all - FAITH IN JESUS AS OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR.

If we focus on our common faith in Jesus, we are then empowered to more effectively DO GOOD AND SEEK JUSTICE. To proclaim God's Kingdom present. To act with mercy, humility, and justice.

Perhaps prayer for Christian Unity should be part of our daily prayer not just something we do for one week every year.

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Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church