This weekend marks the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Church Unity Octave, the original name, became an observance in the church in 1916 with Pope Pius X giving his blessing. It’s a great observance because it invites us to look at how Christ UNITES us. I would imagine we all want unity among Christians…right? It’s in the heart of most people to want to get along with others. There has to be a reason nearly all beauty pageant contestants proclaim WORLD PEACE as the thing they hope for more than all else!

We talk about it.
We pray for it.
We hope for it – just like Miss America.
And yet…
Is it just childish to dream of a world in peace? Silly, hopeful thinking? Impossible even?
I say YES, and NO.

Yes, because as we see in our families, and sadly in our own Parish Community, we can’t even extend peace to one another sometimes, let alone the whole world! We have an argument with our brother, we pick up the “rope” and demand our own way. We look at the happenings in the church across Rte. 28, (that is our parish too) and moan and complain that one is getting more than the other. How then, can we have WORLD peace, if we can’t even establish FAMILY peace? Well, this is the GOOD NEWS – we can’t do it – but Jesus CAN! And we have the Spirit to help and guide our efforts! Is world peace silly, hopeful and impossible? NO! When we decide to act like Jesus, it CAN change the world!

No family, church or community can accomplish unity without realizing the goodness of the body, as our reading from 1 Corinthians this weekend illustrates.

“As a body is one though it has many parts, and ALL (emphasis mine) the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. Now the body is NOT A SINGLE PART (I did it again) but many, it does not for any reason belong any less to the body.” I may be an ear, so I fight with my brother because he is an eye – but MAN, I think he should act like an EAR!!

I resent the person in the pew across town because she is a foot, and I happen to think a hand is better.

Do you ever think “I would get along better with others if they would just “meet me ½ way”? Well ½ way is not the Jesus way. Matthew 5:41 Jesus instructs: “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them 2 miles.”

It’s easy to go the extra mile for someone we love, and deem worthy of the effort. But what would the world look like if I went the extra mile for someone that drives me crazy? Someone who doesn’t seem to ME to deserve it? A hand, when I think they should be a foot – or an eye or an ear? What if I acted like Jesus, and loved the unlovable? Would world peace be possible then? I’m not sure. But I AM sure of this. It would change my little part of the world, and it’s a start.

All we can do is strive to be more like Jesus every day. I pray every day for unity in our parish. Not just during this week of Christian Unity, but every day. We are family after all. And together we are a complete body!

Justine Dufour