Weep my beloved Church!

"Complete my joy brothers and sisters by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing."  (Philippians 2: 2).

Church unity had been a big heartache for Peter and Paul and for all the successors of the  Fisherman throughout the centuries.  In 1054, there appeared a major crack in the unity of the Church between the Western and the Eastern Church.

Today's first Reading addresses the principal causes of Church disunity:
"Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,  each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others."  (Philippians 2: 3 - 4).

The Lord Jesus left us in the Eucharist, Sacrament and Symbol of unity.
In the middle of the 16th century, the Church was splintered into Protestant and Catholic entities.  The Catholic Church representing the ancient Church and the Protestant branch further splintering to today's estimated 60,000 units.

The whole of the New Testament is full of shrill call for unity and warnings and anathemas against agents of disunity.  Paul warned the Roman Christians to put their house in order  "so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."  (Romans 15: 6).

"All the believers were one in heart and mind."  (Acts 4: 32).
This is the will of God for the Church.

The night before He died, Jesus prayed passionately to His Father:
"That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."  (John 17: 21).

Brothers and sisters, pray for Church unity every day.

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