Throughout the centuries since the man Jesus of Nazareth walked the Earth, the mission that He entrusted to His apostles has been acknowledged to be a universal one; both for the Jews, of which Jesus came as one, and for gentiles (those of other religions). Division and dissention have forced the followers of Christianity further and further apart, but certain aspects of brotherhood and mutual beliefs have been maintained and fostered. Among these are the Incarnation, the salvation mission of Christ as the Lamb of God, and the hope offered by the Resurrection; these remain at the heart of most denominations; for the faithful, the Redeemer lives! Of course, the Reformation would not have taken place if divisiveness hadn’t come about and the light of truth shone on the path of the great reformers.
The Roman Church has been on the receiving end of scorn, ridicule, and divisiveness at the hands of reformers, emperors, kings, and even it’s own bishops; through it all, however, it has proven inextinguishable. One important vision that has proved its place in preserving and ensuring the stability of the Roman Church has been its universality. It has a concise catechism that defines the Church’s understanding of itself and of its mission and also its relationship to its people in a world vastly divided over religion. Now, however, it seems that, even within it’s own ranks, the people of the Roman Church are rebelling against the defined mission of the Church and the faith passed down from its hierarchy. The American National Conference of Catholic Bishops held in November addressed the fact that a majority of Catholics in the United States voted for the liberal democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama; this would seemingly show that these voters think against the grain of the conservative Church.
Unquestionably, and in all Christian Churches, the most important element of man’s defined relationship to God are the sacred scriptures. Revelation through divine inspiration has given the world the debated canon of scripture that is the primary manual for living out the faith in the Hebrew God Yahweh, through the apostles of Jesus Christ. Faith is foremost an act of free will in the acceptance of God and having a personal knowledge of God that requires the intellect to make conscious choices about matters of morality, the recognition of sin, and the conversion of one’s heart and mind. Now, the higher the intellect of the faithful, the greater the diversity of Christian thought. How diverse, then, should the faith of Jesus Christ be? If God is the absolute fullness of being and He became man in the Incarnation, then did He not bring the absolute fullness of diversity into the human experience? Only through man, the most rational physical being, could God manifest His intentions for the world; being the highest sentient creature on Earth also must mean that we will and have developed the highest level of diversity.
The Universality of Christian thought, however, as was already said, has at its center the mysteries of Christ as, at the same time, Creator, Incarnation, and living head of His own Church through the Holy Spirit. It was fitting for God to be made flesh because He Himself MADE flesh and wished to communicate to us His intention for a life of faith in community. Above all else, a spousal love for mankind was the message of God as revealed in Christ. Adam’s words in Genesis: “bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,” carry profound weight in Christ; namely, that God became a spouse to humankind. In this relationship, the entirety of Creation becomes ours as Paul said we are “co-heirs” with Christ in the Holy Spirit; which is the very source of inspiration and revelation in the life of faith. One may wonder at this relationship and look forward to the fullness of it that awaits us in glory.
Human beings are said to be made in the image and likeness of God; so, if the fullness of being in God is intrinsically good, this necessitates a definition of human nature as intrinsically good. Original Sin is the teaching that says, through the consequence of free will, man entered into a partial separation or wounded relationship with God and His Creation. From the difficulty God cursed Cain with in tilling the soil because of his brother Abel’s murder, to the disruption of war and social upheaval, even unto the diversity of political manifestos, all mankind is said to suffer because of Original Sin. We are meant to, therefore, accept our own weaknesses and divisions so that we may come to recognize God’s mercy toward us in Christ and, in it, be justified through faith. Destined, as it were, for Christ’s glory ourselves, we should model our lives after His. So, we are left to deal with our frailness, illnesses, weaknesses, and deaths and are asked to bear all with humility, patience, and with dignity.
Expression of faith in community through worship, daily bearing with one another each other’s burdens, and recognizing a mission of spreading the Good News to their fellow Jews, the gentiles, and the pagans, meant that a broad expanse of cultural and religious beliefs would be incorporated into the new faith; but this often harmed early Christian communities. It was just as strange to the Greeks and the Romans to dispense with multi-theism as it was for Jews following the New Way to accept other ideas as having to be embraced or to accept the gentiles as fellows under the banner of Christ. Nevertheless, the mission of the new Christian, both solely and communally, came to be quickly understood: “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations…” Though no one can dismiss division in denominationalism, neither can anyone claim that there is any nation that does not now have believers. The mission of the Church was also expansive in its universality; it had to grow with itself. Jewish tradition kept some demanding the observance of the Law, while Romans commanded ceremony and ritual, and the Greeks a strong hierarchy of political structure. Incorporating so many ideas, the early Church tried to bend but not break and keep it’s mission at the forefront as not divide and conquer, but unify and accept. Of course, man’s hands are stained with sin and the inevitable happened: the mission bent too far and finally broke down. Oddly enough, the rise of Christianity to the staple of western religion brought about the collapse of the world order, and questions about the primacy of those who claimed apostolic supremacy brought about the first division: East verses West. The Emperor Constantine succeeded, however, in broadening the mission of the Church by twofold: on the one hand, constant dialogue between the two sides ensured at least some semblance of brotherhood in Christ; while, on the other, an entirely new front was opened up in the East for a battle of conversion epic to the mission of the Church. True war, however, was finally manifested in the horrors of the Crusades.
Finally, there came the Reformation; the forces of individual thought prevailed and they led to many reactionaries revolting against and splitting with the Church of Rome. It eventually led to the many revolutions that overthrew hierarchical and monarchical systems in which the rich and powerful lived in a world of glitter and pomp, and poor and destitute scratched out a living in the sewage-filled streets. If their can be said to be a “middle class” in those times, it was walked by those who could only take advantage of one class: the poor. A bare minimalist theology allowed atrocities of economic rape and even the Church of Rome bought in by selling salvation and indulgences.
Now, there are so many Christian denominations that it makes the head spin; but, after all, was that God’s plan? If we are the most diverse of His creatures, should we not, then, be the most diverse in our beliefs? I tell no one that they must share my beliefs in order to worship with me as fellow Christians; though I have faith that each time communion is celebrated it is as the Passover and Paschal meal Christ intended, I do not ask anyone else to believe it. If one believes that it is just a symbol and not truly the bread of life, I do not ask them to explain their vision of it before they receive of it; I merely offer it in Christian community. Faith lies in the heart and mind, it must minister to the soul in the best way possible for the individual; and, with such diversity of faith in the world today, it may be that individual knowledge of God that can hold Christianity together and not the petty arguments of doctrine, dogma, and denominationalism. In Heaven, the Church will be revealed in its full glory and we will find out just how senseless the clashes of belief and faith on this Earth were. Amen.
