Some things can be stated so simply, so clearly, that it seems obvious they are the way things are, or ought to be. And yet, we often miss their full, true meaning for our lives because we are too distracted, or sometimes blinded by ignorance, or worse, by willfully held ideas that appear real and good but are not. This passage from First Corinthians is an example of this phenomenon.
In this passage, Paul is giving us an image to explain what the Church is and how it should be seen and experienced in the world. “Brothers and sisters: As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12: 12-14). Paul is merely echoing Jesus’ prayer to the Father here: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” (Jn. 17:21).
This is God’s desire for us who believe, yet we must look honestly at the reality of the Church today. By some estimates, there are over 40,000 Christian denominations in the world today. Their variety of interpretations and teachings can be as nuanced and varied as their numbers. Is this the desire or will of God? It seems eminently clear that it is not, according to the scripture passages included above. At the very least, this reality ought to make us all turn to God with humility to ask for his grace to find ways to resolve the differences that divide us and keep us from being the One Body in Christ that Jesus prayed we would be. Might our divisions be why attempts to evangelize the world for Christ are not taken seriously? Might things be very different if all Christian believers were really and actually living as if they were One Body in Christ, loving God with all of their being, and their neighbors as themselves?
Here are some questions to consider: Do we understand to the fullest extent what this oneness with one another means in the Spirit? What divides us? Are those divisions the result of false teachings, unseen prejudices, simple ignorance, or of a too-narrow interpretation of the Bible? Are we blinded sometimes by worldly things like national boundaries, language, or individual “interpretations”? When fellow Christians are being persecuted in one part of the world, do we feel their pain and sorrow as if it were our own? Do our divisions ever fill us with a sense of sadness or loss?
As Christians, the Scriptures and tradition give us all of the instructions we need for how we are to live together in this world. True, there is one thing that fosters and continues to provoke divisions between one another at every level…sin. Where there is sin, there will always be division. For example, in the Letter of James we see this: “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind” (James 3:16). We have to want it first. Only one being in all of creation desires our division. A humble, honest reflection on our sins and biases, as individuals or as denominations, might be a place to begin our efforts to love one another as Jesus loved us, to become the One Body in Christ that Jesus prayed for so long ago. We know it would be a long and painful process, but only when the cause of our pain, our division, is addressed can the recovery begin. It will not be easy, but we know that: “If God is for us, no one [and no thing] can stand against us” (Romans 8: 31).
Let us all pray in the name of Christ, our Lord, for the divine grace of unity, that we might become one in the One Body of Christ according to the generous, loving will of God. In this unity the world will come to know and to believe in the One who was sent by the Father to redeem the world. Amen.
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