Unity and God’s Will

12 November 2000 18:03

The following item has been written by an Orthodox monk.

So often, when we say, ‘We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church’, we think of only our denomination. For us, often unity is within only a part of the truly catholic Church. Catholic, as we know, comes from the Greek, kata and holon, meaning in accordance with the whole. This ‘whole’ is not a part of Christ’s body in heaven and earth, but must be all of it. To be a believer in the catholic Church is to believe in an infinite, unchangeable and undestroyable whole, which is at one with the nature of Christ Himself.

The Church, as it is catholic, is greater than any denomination, greater than any worldly group or organisation and far beyond our comprehension. Like most of the practices of our human minds, we tend to restrict our belief to our comprehension and do not allow God to fill us with the fullness of faith.

The Orthodox Church is a family of Churches each having its own jurisdiction, but being united in faith. Within Orthodoxy, there are varieties of traditions and differences of practice, but a single unchanging faith, coming to us from God, through the Apostles and Church Fathers, unites us all. There are frequently arguments (as there will be in any family), but these are political, jurisdictional, human and invariably the work of the Devil, who tries his hardest to break the true unity of part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. He never will.

There will always be differences of practice and tradition throughout all Christian churches; however, our fullness of faith should allow us to be as one. When our Saviour prayed to His Father that we should be one, He said that this unity should be as the unity within the Trinity. “May they be one, as We are One”. The persons of the Trinity are not the same. They have an individuality that makes them as three and a unity that makes them One.

There is, then, no problem of individuality, variety of persons, or
practice. We are not to be uniform Christians. We are, though, like
the Trinity to be totally bound together in faith and love.

We can never do this. For us it is impossible. All that we can do
alone, without God, is to sin and we do that very well indeed! For us to
love God and each other, we need to let Him fill us with Himself. Also
for us to have faith, God needs to fill us. We can have no faith without
Him. Faith and love cannot be gained academically in the same way that

we cannot be taught to fall in love in human terms.

Our aim, as Christians, is then, to be totally filled with God. For all that we think or say or do to be God thinking, saying or doing. To do this we must recognize our weakness before God’s throne. So often, we think what we would like to do and, as a slight act of acknowledgement to God’s power, we ask Him to bless our idea or action. This is self-centred folly. God must give the idea and we, filled with Him, can then do His will. The only prayer is, “Thy will be done”, all else follows from that and when we let God fill us (as He wants to do so much), His Will will be done.

Only when we are filled with God will we be able to have unity, the true catholic nature of the Church. Only when we all relinquish self-will God’s own love hold us together. In our worldly weakness there will then be Divine power!

O great and glorious God,
You show Your almighty power through that which seems weak to the world and You fill us with Your Grace when we are in greatest poverty.

Work Your Will in my life;
fill my weakness with Your strength;
speak through my dumbness with Your words
and heal my coldness with the warmth of Your love.

Direct my way with Your Wisdom and make my knowledge be Your Truth; so may I ascribe to You all glory,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.