The Church must breathe with her two lungs

 - May 20, 2017

 

"The Church must breathe with her two lungs". So wrote Pope Saint John Paul II 22 years ago in “Ut Unum Sint”. These lungs to which he refers are the Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) churches, known as “Sister Churches” since the lifting of their nearly millennium old mutual excommunications. One Body, two lungs — of which the Holy Father asserted must become a “unity bestowed by the Holy Spirit.” This is the same Spirit of today’s Gospel reading which Jesus, on the night before he died, promised the apostles His Father would send. No doubt, in using the “lungs” metaphor, the Pope had in mind that the biblical word for breath and Spirit are the same, and that the Eastern churches emphasize the Holy Spirit.

Even within our own Catholic communion, there are 24 “churches or rites.” You are likely most familiar with the one western rite: the Latin or Roman Catholic; and less familiar with the 23 Eastern Catholic rites such as the Maronite Catholic, Greek (Melkite) Catholic, and Coptic Catholic--Not so with me. My short couple of years as a Latin Catholic at St. Monica’s has hardly allowed me to catch up to my historical experience of the Eastern ‘lung’. Much of my spirituality is grounded in the Eastern expression of Christianity handed on through my family from southern Lebanon. That faith might well have been handed on to my ancestors by St. Paul when he evangelized the area. Indeed, it is not impossible that they met Jesus Himself!

Some parishioners have commented on my style of crossing myself, and other unfamiliar liturgical mannerisms. Like most Eastern rite Catholics, I cross myself from right to left. And with a particular devotion to the Holy Trinity as the core dogma of Christianity, we touch the tips of the first two fingers to the thumb to symbolize this. The other two fingers are held together against the palm, symbolizing the next important dogma, the two natures of Christ — human and divine. Likewise, I bless in this manner, as apparently did St. Peter, at least as depicted in the famous ancient statue of him in his Vatican basilica. He was, after all, an immigrant to the West, to Rome, from the Eastern Jerusalem Church!

The same Holy Father, 33 years ago, allowed under “the Pastoral Provision” that married Anglican priests could become Roman Catholic priests to a maximum of two per diocese. As I prepare, God willing, to be ordained one of several married Catholic priests in Montreal, albeit the first Roman Catholic one in this Archdiocese, yet also among several “Pastoral Provision” priests in Canada, I have the unique privilege at St. Monica’s of importing some spirituality from the Eastern lung of the Church, not least through a particular devotion to God the Holy Spirit.

With Pope Saint John Paul II, let us pray for the manifestation of the Holy Breath of both lungs of the Church that: the Holy Spirit is able to grant us clear-sightedness, strength and courage to take whatever steps are necessary toward unity in diversity,and that our commitment may be ever more authentic. Amen.

(P.S. As a full-time stagieire, I will be around St. Monica’s most every day except Mondays.)