On the way to Christian Unity
Biblical Meditation: an Orthodox perspective
Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus… (Philippians 2, 2-5)
Though the content of the text from Philippians does not refer directly to the nature of the unity of the Church we seek, it refers to the process, or rather to the attitude one may adopt during the process of common search for Christian unity.
1. The key words which are coming out from this text is so familiar to both Orthodox theology and spirituality: humility, love, service and care for others.
Though the search for unity remains a commitment for all those involved in ecumenical encounters and dialogue, the difficulties persist as different parties understand and approach it differently. For some, the dialogue is accepted as long as the different identities, as they are understood and lived in their historical developments, are not threatened. There is a fear of loosing one’s particularity; there is a fear that in the process of searching for unity, some may gain some may loose. And no one wants to be a loser.
There is, at times, a power struggle of offering one’s “truth” over against the “truths” of the others. For the people with such thinking, attitudes and approaches, the dialogue is accepted and promoted as long as it leads to and remains to the level of “cooperation” , but does not imply any notion of change or transformation.
The problem is that some of us behave, at times, as the two disciples from the Gospel text of the day. They asked to be put of the right and left hand of Jesus when He will come in His Kingdom. However, some of us involved in the ecumenical dialogues and in search for Christian unity behave as being already placed at the right and left hand of Jesus. And from there we speak arrogantly to the others.
2. Christian truth is not an ideology; it is not a system of thought, a collection of right formulations in conflict or competition with other ideological systems. The Christian truth is to be found in the person of Christ who offered Himself as being the truth, the way and the life. The Christian witness refers to the witness of the fullness of Christ. Through Christ, we have relation to the Father and are partakers of the koinonia of the Holy Spirit. The formulations of the early ecumenical councils were not innovations or additions or further doctrinal developments of the apostolic Kerygma, but affirmations and articulations about the fullness of Christ when it was challenged or disputed. Even then, it was not the intent of clearly putting in antagonism the bad and the good verbal formulations. The main reason for such formulations was related to the issue of salvation, which was very much dependent on the fullness of life in Christ. [read more...]
