Pope Benedict Talks Christian Unity at Wednesday Audience (Text and Pics)

It seems I have talked alot about politics and Obama today.

Well for a much needed change of pace here is the POPE and my weekly (when I can can remember to do it) Papal Wednesday Audience post. Thanks to the Ratzinger Forum for the translation and pics from today. (More Pics at link) CLICK ON PICS IF VIEWING ON MY BLOG TO SEE FULL PICTURE. I don't feel like resizing them today :)

CATECHESIS ON CHRISTIAN UNITY

Dear brothers and sisters: Last Sunday, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began, to be concluded next Sunday, feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This is a spiritual initiative which becomes ever more valuable as it spreads increasingly among Christians, in tune with and, we might say, in response to the heartfelt invocation addressed by Jesus to the Father at the Cenacle just before his Passion: "That they may all be one... (so) that the world may believe that you sent me" (Jn 17, 21).

Four times in that priestly prayer, the Lord asked that his disciples may 'all be one', as in the image of unity between the Father and the Son. It is a unity that can grow only from the example of the Son giving himself to the Father, that is, by going out of ourselves and uniting ourselves to Christ. Twice moreover in this prayer, Jesus adds the reason for this unity: that the world may believe. Full unity is, therefore, connected to the very life and mission of the Church in the world. She should live as a unity which can only come from her union with Christ, with his transcendence, as a sign that Christ is the truth.

This is our responsibility: that the gift of unity be visible to the world by virtue of which our faith is made credible. For this, it is important that every Christian community be aware of the urgency of working in all possible ways in order to achieve this great objective. But, knowing that unity is above all a gift of the Lord, we must at the same time imvoke it with tireless and confident prayer. Only by getting out of ourselves to go towards Christ, only in a relationship with him, can we truly become united among ourselves.

This is the invitation that is addressed this week to all believers in Christ of every Church and ecclesial community. Dear brothers and sisters, let us respond to it with prompt generosity. This year, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity proposes for our meditation and prayer words taken from the book of the prophet Ezekiel: "Then join the two sticks together, so that they form one stick in your hand" (Ez 37,17).

The theme was chosen by an ecumenical group in Korea and reviewed for international use by the Mixed Committee for Prayer composed of representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Ecumenical Council of Churches based in Geneva. The process itself of preparing for this week's observance was a fecund and stimulating exercise in true ecumenism.

In the chapter from Ezekiel from which the theme was taken, the Lord orders the prophet two take two sticks - one a symbol of Judah and its tribes, and the other a symbol of Joseph and all Israel united to him - and asks him to 'join them together' so they might form "one stick in your hand'. The parable of unity is transparent. To the 'sons of the people' who asked for an explanation, Ezekiel, illuminated from on high, would say that the Lord himself takes the two sticks and puts them together so that the two kingdoms with their respective tribes, divided among themselves, would become 'one in your hands'.

The hand of the prophet, which puts the two sticks together, can be considered the hand of God himself who gathers and unites his people and finally all of mankind. We can apply the words of the prophet to us Christians, as an exhortation to pray, to work and do all that is possible so that the unity of all the disciples of Christ may be fulfilled, to work so that our hand may be the instrument of the unifying hand of God. This exhortation is particularly moving and heartfelt in the words of Jesus after the Last Supper.

The Lord desires that all of his people may walk together - and he sees here the Church of the future, of future centuries - in patience and perseverance towards the goal of full unity. This is a task that involves humble adherence and obedience to the Lord's command, who blesses it and makes it fruitful. The prophet Ezekiel assures us that it will be him, our only Lord, the one God, who will gather us together in 'his hand'.

The second part of this Biblical reading looks deeper into the significance and the condition of unity among the various tribes of Israel into one kingdom. In their dispersion among the Gentiles, the Israelites had been introduced to erroneous cults, they had matured in themselves wrong concepts of life, they had assumed customs alien to divine law. Now the Lord declares that they should no longer be contaminated with the idols of pagan peoples, with their abominations, with all their iniquity (cfr Ez 37, 23).

He reminds them of the need to free themselves of sin, to purify their hearts. "I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God", and thus, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Ez 37,27). In this condition of interior renewal, "they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees" (37,24). The prophetic text ends with the definitive and fully salvific promise: "I will make with them a covenant of peace... and put my sanctuary among them forever" (37,26). The vision of Ezekiel is particularly eloquent for the entire ecumenical movement, because it brings to light the indispensable need for an authentic interior renewal among all the components of the People of God that only the Lord can effect.

We must be open ourselves to this renewal, because we too, dispersed among the peoples of the world, have learned habits that are very remote from the Word of God. "Since every renewal of the Church," it says in the decree on ecumenism by the Second Vatican Council, "is essentially grounded in an increase of fidelity to her own calling...undoubtedly this is the basis of the movement toward unity" (Unitatis redintegrazio, 6), namely, maximum fidelity to the call of God. The decree also underscores the interior dimension of conversion in the heart. "There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart," it says. "...from renewal of the inner life of our minds, from self-denial and an unstinted love" (UR, 7).

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity thus becomes for all of us a stimulus towards sincere conversion, an ever more obedient listening to the Word of God, and an ever deeper faith. The Week is also a propitious occasion to thank the Lord for what he has done so far to bring us together, we divided Christians, and the Churches and ecclesial communities themselves. This spirit has inspired the Catholic Church which, in the year just past, continued with firm conviction and well-rooted hope to undertake fraternal and respectful relations with all the Churches adn ecclesial communities of the East and West. In a variety of situations, some more positive, some with greater difficulties, it has tried never to fall short of its commitment to exert every effort that could lead to a recomposition of full unity.

Relations among the Churches and theological dialogs have continued to give signs of encouraging spiritual convergences. I myself have had the joy of meeting, here in the Vatican and during my apostolic trips, Christians from every horizon. With great joy I welcomed three times the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Holiness Bartholomew I, including that extraordinary occasion when he addressed the recent assembly of the Bishops' Synod with fraternal warmth and persuasive confidence for the future. I had the pleasure likewise of receiving here two Catholicoi of the Armenian Apostolic Church: His Holiness Karekin II of Etchmiadzin and His Holiness Aram II of Antelias. I shared the sorrow of the Patriarchate of Moscow for the departure of our beloved brother in Christ, His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II, and I continue to be in a communion of prayer with those brothers of ours who are preparing to elect the new Patriarch of their venerable and great Orthodox Church.

Likewise, I had the occasion to meet with representatives of the various Christian communities of the West, with whom our exchanges continue on the important testimony that Christians today should render in concordance with each other, in a world which is ever more divided and faced with so many challenges of cultural, social, economic and ethical character. For these and for so many other meetings, dialogs, and fraternal gestures that the Lord has granted us to realize, let us together give him thanks with joy. Dear brothers and sisters, let us take the opportunity that the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity offers us to ask the Lord that ecumenical commitment and dialog may progress, and if possible, be intensified. In the context of the Pauline Year which commemorates the bimillenial anniversary of the birth of St. Paul, we cannot fail to refer to what the Apostle Paul left us in his writings on the subject of the unity of Christians.

Every Wednesday, I have been dedicating my reflections to his letters and to his precious teaching. I will refer here simply to what he wrote to the Christian community in Ephesus: "One body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph 4,4-5). Let us make St. Paul's desire ours, he who spent his life entirely for the one Lord and and for the unity of his mystical body, the Church, and rendering, with his martyrdom, a supreme testimonial of faith and love for Christ. Following his example and relying on his intercession, may every community grow in commitment towards unity, thanks to the various spiritual and pastoral graces and to assemblies of common prayer which usually take place in greater numbers and more intensely during this special Week, giving us a foretaste somehow of that day of full unity.

Let us pray so that among the Churches and ecclesial communities, the dialog of truth may continue, indispensable for clearing up divergences, and that dialog of charity which conditions the theological dialog and allows us to live side by side to bear common witness. The desire which dwells in our hearts is that the day of full communion may come soon, when all the disciples of our only Lord may finally be able to celebrate the Eucharist together. Let us invoke the maternal intercession of Mary so that she may help all Christians cultivate a more attentive ear to the Word of God and pray more intensely for unity.