In April of 2019, Pope Francis met
with the Grand Imam Ahmad al Tayyeb of Al Azhar University. This was
significant because the Grand Imam is a force for unity among
Muslims, and vehemently opposed to terrorism in the name of Islam.
So if there is anything remotely like a pope in Islam, Ahmad al
Tayyeb is probably it. The two signed the “Document on Human
Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”. It is a wonderful
document, and would be worth reflecting on at length. But one
statement led to a lot of controversy and push back from some
Catholics as well as Muslims. It is this: “ The pluralism and the
diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by
God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.” Few
people would argue with color, sex, race and language, but God willed
pluralism and diversity of religions? That seems to fly in the face
of anyone who thinks his or her religion is the true faith. So
what’s going on here?
I don’t get all my prayers answered,
at least the way I think they should be. But I guess I’m in good
company. Jesus didn’t get all his prayers answered either. One
prayer was that “if it was possible let this cup pass from me”
and we know that wasn’t answered. Another prayer we hear at the
end of today’s gospel passage:”That they may be one as we are
one…” And of course we know that one of the scandals of
Christianity is that after two thousand years we don’t seem to have
that kind of unity. We have denominations too numerous to count; and
even within our Church there are divisions. There are those who
won’t go to Mass unless they can attend a tridentine mass in latin;
there are those who are going to make a fuss over not being allowed
to receive the Eucharist on the tongue during this pandemic. There
are those who insist that they are Catholics but promote and condone
abortion; If Jesus prayed for unity among his followers, it doesn't
appear that the Father has answered that prayer.
But it’s almost unthinkable to
suppose that the Father would not be answering his Son’s prayer,
the Son who is one with him, the Son who sits at his right hand. So
perhaps we should decide what unity looks like. There are three
possibilities: one is that unity of the followers of Jesus means
that they belong to a visible body, they believe the same things,
they worship the same way. It seemed like that was the model in the
first days of the Church. When you read the Acts of the Apostles,
there are struggles as the church adjusts to the admission of
gentiles, what parts of Judaism to keep and what parts to leave, and
so on. And pressure from outside formed a fairly unified church, at
least for a couple of centuries before things started breaking up
again. Even the might of the Holy Roman Empire could not force
external conformance on the Church. Many in our Catholic church
still see this conformity as unity -- you are either in or out.
Another possibility is that unity is
expressed by the lowest common denominator. “That this is eternal
life, that they know you, the eternal God, and Jesus Christ whom you
have sent.” It’s likely that every Christian could agree with
those words, and a few other sentiments. We all say the Our Father;
most of us baptize and have some sort of Eucharistic celebration.
But if that’s the unity Jesus was praying for, it seems
particularly weak. It doesn’t seem to advance the Kingdom of
Heaven; it certainly doesn’t do much to energize the main task of
the Church which is the bringing about of the Kingdom of Heaven here
on earth.
That leaves us with the third
possibility. Jesus is praying for an eschatological unity.
Eschatology is the branch of theology that begins with the assumption
that what God says will come to pass will happen. And then we look
for signs of that future in the present. That’s the story of
Abraham,, by the way. God promised him that his descendants would be
as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore.
But Abraham died, with only one legitimate son. But in that son
Abraham understood God’s promise would be carried out. And when
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is among us, that’s an
eschatological truth as well -- we can see signs of it in the good
things that happen as his followers carry out his commandments, but
we can also see that what is meant to be hasn’t happened yet.
The good thing about thinking
eschatologically is that it gives us direction. If we are supposed
to work for unity, and we are, because that is the desire of Jesus,
introducing division would seem to be the last thing that would help.
When we draw lines and say this side is right and that is wrong, and
we won’t have anything to do with those on the wrong side, that
causes even more division. My mother used to describe people like
that as “holier than the pope”. The other extreme -- emphasizing
our commonalities and minimizing those things that make us unique is
not helpful either. That only introduces stagnation. If the
differences between your group and mine are non-essential, then why
not just leave things the way they are?
But when we work for eschatological
unity, we look for things we share and in those areas we meet our
neighbor, we have real unity, although nowhere near perfect.
However, in doing so we create a space for the Holy Spirit to carry
out Jesus’ will for us.
And we always have to remember that we
will not see God’s plan come to fulfillment in our lifetimes; but
you and I are what our ancestors in faith were working toward, just
as we will have descendants for whom the Church will look very
different than it does now. It will still be the Church, but it will
have drawn closer to the unity that Jesus desires. And those
descendants of ours will still be tempted to draw lines or to water
down differences, because they will be human. But from God’s point
of view, his plan will continue to unfold exactly as he wishes it to
do so. So in some sense the Pope and the Imam are working toward
unity -- a unity that has begun already, but is not there yet.
