Pope Francis warned against the risk of being blind to the gifts given to other Christians, as he opened the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the Roman basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls,on Friday,January 18, explaining that “it is a grave sin to belittle or despise the gifts that the Lord has given our brothers and sisters” and warning that if "we entertain such thoughts, we allow the very grace we have received to become a source of pride, injustice and division”.
The Christians of Indonesia, reflecting on the theme chosen for this Week of Prayer, decided to draw inspiration from these words of Deuteronomy: “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue”. They are “deeply concerned that the economic growth of their country, driven by the mentality of competition, is leaving many in poverty and allowing a small few to become immensely wealthy" stressed Francis, who celebrated the start of the ecumenical week, rather than its conclusion as in previous years, because in a week's time he will be in Panama for the World Youth Day. "The harmony of a society in which people of different ethnic groups, languages and religions live together and share a sense of responsibility for one another, is at risk”. But this - the Pope continued- is not simply the case in Indonesia; it is a situation we see worldwide. When society is no longer based on the principle of solidarity and the common good, we witness the scandal of people living in utter destitution amid skyscrapers, grand hotels and luxurious shopping centres, symbols of incredible wealth”. We have forgotten the wisdom of the Mosaic law: if wealth is not shared, society is divided. Saint Paul, writing to the Romans, applies the same thinking to the Christian community: those who are strong must bear with the weak. It is not Christian “to please ourselves”.
Following Christ’s example, we are to make every effort to build up those who are weak. Solidarity and shared responsibility must be the laws that govern the Christian family. “As God’s holy people, we too constantly find ourselves on the threshold of entering the Lord’s promised kingdom. Yet, since we are also divided, we need to recall God’s summons to justice. Christians too risk adopting the mentality known to the ancient Israelites and contemporary Indonesians, namely that in the pursuit of wealth, we forget about the weak and those in need”.
"It is easy to forget the fundamental equality existing among us: that once we were all slaves to sin, that the Lord saved us in baptism and called us his children”. It is easy - the Pope remarked - to think that the spiritual grace granted us is our property, something to which we are due, our property. The gifts we have received from God can also blind us to the gifts given to other Christians. It is a grave sin - he stressed - to belittle or despise the gifts that the Lord has given our brothers and sisters, and to think that God somehow holds them in less esteem. When we entertain such thoughts, we allow the very grace we have received to become a source of pride, injustice and division. And how can we then enter the promised kingdom? For this reason, " To take the first steps towards the promised land that is our unity, we must first of all recognize with humility that the blessings we have received are not ours by right, but have come to us as a gift; they were given to be shared with others. Then, we must acknowledge the value of the grace granted to other Christian communities. As a result, we will want to partake of the gifts of others. A Christian people renewed and enriched by this exchange of gifts – the pope concluded - will be a people capable of journeying firmly and confidently on the path that leads to unity".
At the end of the celebration, which was attended by representatives of the other Churches and non-Catholic ecclesial communities present in Rome, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, stressed that "unity is a gift, it is free, it is a grace" and it is therefore necessary to profess together "that we cannot consider ourselves to be just on the basis of our own strengths, but because we are justified by the merit of Christ. Only in this way can we commit ourselves to justice”.
Moreover, on the occasion of the launch of the week of prayer for Christian unity, in the edition of the Osservatore Romano published today afternoon, Andrea Palmieri, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, stresses that "in the second half of last year, a challenge for theological dialogue arose because of the exacerbation of tensions between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Moscow, for the issue of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. The initiatives undertaken by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in view of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have aroused strong reactions from the Patriarchate of Moscow, which considers Ukraine its canonical territory and sees, therefore, the initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as non canonical interference in its own internal affairs. Despite the position of absolute neutrality of the Catholic Church on the matter of Ukrainian autocephaly - the Vatican representative writes - the decision of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow taken on 14 September, following the nomination of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of two exarchs for Ukraine, according to which, among other things, the participation of representatives of the Patriarchate of Moscow in all the commissions presided over by a bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is forbidden, is fraught with potentially negative consequences on the work of the Joint International Commission".
This perspective took place on the occasion of the meeting of the coordinating committee of the commission, held at the monastery of Bose from 13 to 19 November last, where, however, "despite the absence of the representatives of the Patriarchate of Moscow, the Coordinating Committee was in agreement in continuing the work". The theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, is the conclusion of Palmieri's article, "is in a particularly delicate phase. While the International Joint Commission is beginning to address some issues that are at the heart of the historical dispute between the two Churches, one can only hope that relations between Catholics and Orthodox will continue and develop ever more and that intra-Orthodox relations will cool off as soon as possible. The fruits of the theological dialogue can only be accepted and appreciated when Christians, walking together, praying and working together, experience the communion that already unites them".
