By Leon Bent –
The theme for the Week is: “They Showed Us Unusual Kindness” (cf. Acts 28:2).
Fr. James Loughran, SA, Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute noted that “as we gather annually throughout the world to pray for the unity of Christians we are reminded of the importance of need for “unusual kindness” in the dialogue the leads to growth in unity. We do this in a world where separation and division hinder the quest for Christian Unity. In 2020, we are being called to show unusual kindness towards one another.”
During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Churches of all faiths are called together to form a vibrant and prayerful witness for Christian Unity by heeding Jesus’ prayer, “that they all may be one” (Jn.17:21).
Every year in January during the Unity Octave Christians of different Churches across the world gather to pray together and to grow in unity. We live in a fractured world where corruption, greed and injustice give rise to inequality and division, but we know that when we pray united in Jesus’ name our prayer is powerful and can bring healing. Let’s join all initiatives of prayer services for Christian unity during this week, and seek to increase our love for those Christians who belong to a Church that is different from ours.
Is a week of prayer for Christian unity enough? Or has it outlived its time and we need to think and act and pray for unity, period! Inter-religious/spiritual, inter-racial, inter-cultural, inter-political, inter-social/economic, inter-national, inter-generational, inter-sexual/gender, inter-able, and across any and all divides between ourselves and others, let’s have a week, a month, a year of prayer and action for unity together!
Christians are in the midst of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Beginning with the feast day of St. Peter on January 18 and ending with the feast day of St. Paul on January 25, it is eight days to recognize that as the earliest Jewish and Gentile Christian Church represented by Peter and Paul found unity despite their vast perceived differences, so we need to seek and act in unity as followers of Jesus in our diversity and our time. This prayer for unity is based on Jesus’ prayer in the Gospel of John (17:20-21a) “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.”
Brian McLaren in his book, The Great Spiritual Migration, How the world’s largest religion is seeking a better way to be Christian, outlines a “Charter for a Just and Generous Christianity.” It includes “a deep thirst for a more authentic, honest and sustaining spiritual life; a compelling hunger to do justice, to show compassion and walk humbly with God; a powerful desire to understand and engage with the critical problems of our world; a profound need for space to grapple honestly with our questions of theology and practise; an impatient readiness to move beyond narratives of decline to narratives of hope and empowerment; and a growing loneliness for a sense of shared identity and belonging that transcend institutional affiliation.” Seeking unity together for this purpose, compels Christians to seek greater unity together with all others in common action and wherever possible, common prayer together.
Now, this gold nugget! Let us continue, then, with courage and patience along this path, trusting in the power of the Spirit! It is not for us to set time frames or deadlines; the Lord’s promise is enough for us. Strengthened by the word of Christ, we shall not give in to weariness, but rather shall intensify our efforts and our prayer for unity. May his invitation echo in our hearts tonight and bring us comfort: “Let us go forward, placing our trust always in him! Amen”.
And, this final flourish! Could a week of prayer lead ultimately to lives of prayer and action for global unity? Maybe that is what Jesus’ prayer has meant all along.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.