"When
all things were in quiet silence and night was in the midst of her swift
course, thine Almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of thy royal
throne…" and that Word took flesh untainted by sin from the Virgin chosen
from the beginning of time. It was done for the healing of that tragic rift
between God and Man.
God created
all things to be in perfect unity. He made the universe as a reflection of His
own divine order. He created Man in His own image, to be in perfect communion
with Him. But through the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, disorder
entered into the world, and perfect communion was broken. And ever since that
time, there has been a tendency in the natural order of things for there to be
disintegration, the breakdown of things, a crumbling. Sadly, what should be
unnatural has become all too normal in the world around us, and within us, and
even within the Church.
Christ
founded the Church to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic – and so it is. But
our sin has caused division, and that’s a clear contradiction to the Divine
Will of our Lord. While there may well be an invisible spiritual communion
deeper than we know, especially through the bonds of baptism, nonetheless there
is to be a visible communion, too, because that’s the Will of Christ, and the
constant invitation from God is that we work and pray to build up both the
spiritual and visible unity of Christ’s Body.
It’s this
purpose – the building up of unity – which is outlined at the very beginning of
the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus. In fact, this stated purpose
is sometimes glossed over in the search for the particulars of the Personal
Ordinariates. People tend to look at the details of how they’re established,
and of who can belong, of the liturgical use, and of who can be ordained –
indeed, any number of other details.
But all that
neglects the reason for Pope Benedict XVI’s great generosity, and that is
to help bring about the prayer of Christ “that they all may be one.” It’s not
accidental that the first three paragraphs of the Apostolic Constitution speak
of the Church as “a people gathered into the unity of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit,” and that the Church was instituted by Christ as “a
sacrament…of communion with God and of unity among all people,” and that this
Church is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion
with him. Then, recognizing that there are “many elements of sanctification and
of truth [which] are found outside her visible confines,” he says that these
“are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.”
What had
been broken, the Personal Ordinariates invite us to repair. The communion that
has been impaired, we are asked to restore. The fellowship which has been
strained, we are bidden to strengthen.
God’s
Incarnate Love came into this world by Our Lady’s “yes,” and it would gladden
her heart for her children to be one again. She, who stood beside the Cross and
saw her Son in agony, would be comforted by us taking away this pain of
separation. There are few things that touch a mother’s heart more, than to see
her whole family together at one table. This is why we have been given the
Apostolic Constitution: so that we can put division behind us, and join
together with one voice and one heart in “that most holy cause, the preaching
of the Gospel” to the whole world.
“Lord Jesus,
make us one, as you and the Father are one.” Amen.
