It is the default state that Christians are to be united. The term “one” is the first adjective found in the Nicene Creed; a descriptor of God, it is the belief first claimed by Christians. Unity, or ‘oneness,’ is encompassed in God. In speaking to Moses on Mt. Zion, He proclaims, “I am that am.” I, not ‘we’, not ‘Us’, but ‘I’ emphasized by its repetition. The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is ‘one’. The Trinity itself is the embodiment of unity. God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are the One, Triune God. Not three separate gods, or three manifestations of God. Christ is the great unifier. He is unity itself. He in His Body unites us with God the Father. “No man cometh to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
In Christ is unity and in His unity he created one Church; how then can we have a disunited Church? St. Paul writes in Corinthians 6:17, “Whoever is joined to the Lord is one spirit”. We become one with Christ, and thus with one another, much like a husband and wife. The union of Adam and Eve in Genesis prefigures the uniting of Christ and His Church; the Church is the bride of Christ. After all, how else are we joined to Him but through His Church? This is repeated throughout the Scriptures. And much like a nuptial union, such as the wedding at Cana, the sight of Christ’s first miracle, there are outward signs of this union. Baptism is an outward sign of our devotion to Our Lord. The Eucharist, a manifestation of the sacrificial love (agape) love of Christ to His bride
There can not be truth in the idea of Christian “denominations.” The term itself denotes the idea of divisions. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a breaking off into different sizes or value.” While certain parts of our body are differing shapes, sizes, and lengths, are any of these disparate parts more or less valuable to us than the other? There cannot be division in Christ because Christ, unlike Satan, can not bring division within himself. When he speaks of bringing division in St. Matthew‘s Gospel:
“Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.”(Matthew 10:34-35)
He is pure and only separates that which is good from that which is evil. He points toward and embodies the separation of Satan from God; dividing the Sheep from the wolves.
Christ is no polygamist, he has one bride, not many. Some will say one merely needs to believe Christ is the Savior and all other doctrinal differences are immaterial. How can they be “immaterial’? Can one bride have contradictory beliefs within itself? A pagan such as the great Aristotle understood this truth; that one can not hold contradictory views or truths and have them both be true at the same time. It is impossible and a sure sign of mental illness. In the Scriptures, when we read of multiple spirits (multiple personalities if you will) inhabiting a person, it is always demonic. Never is there more than one spirit in any Godly or righteous person.
In contrast to the Divine, the Profane One, Satan, is the great divider. He is the originator of division. And out of this division birthed chaos. In St. Mark’s Gospel when Christ meets the man with “unclean spirits” he demands to know the demon’s name, to which the demon replies, “My name is Legion, for we are many” (Mark 5:9). There are many multiples, and if we know our Roman military history, we can understand, as Christ understood, this means there were 5000 demonic spirits inhabiting this one man. All in strife one against another and against God’s creation. No wonder the man was tormented. No wonder he could neither be chained by neither hand nor foot “but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet” (Mark 5:4).
In this possessed man, we see more of the false virtues of division. He spent time not looking towards the Heavens and Godly things but in the tombs. In imitation of their true home, the demons sent him into the dark places among the dead, Hell. The destruction wrought by division is also in him as he self-harms as he “cut himself with stones.” (Mark 5:5)
As we can see from the above example, the minions of the Enemy work for destruction only. Unlike the Angels of God who work in unison with God’s will, they connive against God’s earthly creation and among themselves against each other. Satan himself understands this truth. When he tempts Christ to throw himself onto the rocks below, he knows the Angels of Heaven would save Him (Luke 4:9-11). The Angels of God will work to protect Christ in order that God’s will be done; the Sacrifice of His Son on the Cross. Satan also knew from experience, his non serviam, that by this act Christ would destroy this unity by countering God’s will and this disunity between the Will of God and the Will of Christ would mean God’s defeat and the damnation of all of Humanity.
As we celebrate this time of Pentecost, the nativity of the Church, we can and should contemplate diversity. In the Acts of the Apostles we read, “And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place”. This gathering of all the Church at that time is one room, but The Holy Ghost brings upon them what looks to be disunity; they begin to speak in “divers tongues” (Acts 2:4). This “diversity” among the Apostles was not an act by God to split the Church. Unlike what occurred at Babel, this was an act done in order to bring in the disunity found outside of it. All those from the scattered nations of the world; “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome. Jews also, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians: we have heard them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:9-11). Hearing the words of Peter and the other Apostles these diverse nations were made one in Christ: “They therefore that received his word, were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:41-42).
During this Embertide let us contemplate the Oneness of the Holy Trinity and how we all as believers can mirror God’s unity so that we may become closer in unity with Him.
Prayer for Embertide:
O ALMIGHTY God, look mercifully upon the world, redeemed by the blood of thy dear Son, and incline the hearts of all whom thou dost call to offer themselves for the sacred ministry of thy Church; that there may never be wanting a supply of fit persons to preach thy Word, and dispense thy holy Sacraments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.