Unity in the Church

"It has been reported to me...that there is quarreling among you..."

My sermon for last Sunday, 3rd in Ordinary Time, Year A:

In the few short lines of today's second reading it seems that Saint Paul is anxious to restore the spirit of unity and harmony to the divided Corinthian church. Differences of opinion have in some way solidified into separate factions. Church members have grouped themselves around a number of individual leaders - including Paul himself.

Paul first of all deplores the 'cult of personality' involved in church members declaring themselves as followers of individual pastors. No matter how attractive their personalities or persuasive their preaching, they are not Christ, they are not the Messiah; they have not surrendered their lives in atonement for the sins of the world. Paul argues strongly that in the Christian community worship and adoration should be directed to Christ alone, not to his ministers.

Second, if we take Paul's ministry as a whole, we see he does not deny that argument and discussion are vital to healthy community life. He himself famously rebuked Saint Peter for equivocating on aspects of the mission to the Gentiles. But Paul is also aware that "discussion" easily generates divisions; that divisions harden into antagonisms; and antagonisms destroy the spirit of love that should unite all members of Christ's Body, no matter how great is the variety of different opinions on matters of faith.

Third, Paul knows very well that there is a substantial core of Christian teaching - dogmas, ethical principles and norms of worship - which are not matters of opinion, but have to be accepted as true and non-negotiable as a condition of authentic discipleship. No one in the early Church was a stronger advocate of an essential content of faith, around which the whole community must be united in a spirit of humble obedience, than Saint Paul.

The situation of the community in Corinth is mirrored in the many divisions in today's Church - divisions exacerbated, I believe, by a failure or refusal on the part of many Church members to observe this "obedience of faith".

When parish clergy and liturgy groups deliberately flout established norms of worship; when Catholic teachers use R.E. lessons to impart their own opinions and disagreements to their pupils; when Catholic retreat houses propagate New Age doctrines and practices, we are witnessing, not a healthy diversity and vitality, but a harmful disruption of the unity of faith. One of the ironies of the present situation is that Catholics who voice their objections to erroneous ideas and abusive liturgical practices are often accused of being the perpetrators of division and disharmony - which always recalls to my mind the prophet Jeremiah's denunciation of those who cry "peace, peace" where there is no peace. (Jer 6:14).

"In essentials, unity," Saint Augustine is believed to have said, "in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity". If we all sincerely tried to follow this maxim, while heeding Saint Paul's appeal in today's second reading, we would probably be able to conduct important and constructive debates in a far more grown-up way than is unfortunately often the case in contemporary Church circles.