New Eyes, Ears and Heart for Christian Unity

We are in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  A gentle thought occurred to me today that the Protestant Reformation reminds me of when my teenagers left home to make their own way, or of growing up with five siblings who eventually all made their way from the family nest to make their own way, myself being the last to go.  Granted, none of my four brothers or my sister left our religious tradition of origin, but we all found unique variations on living the tradition in our daily life.  Some of us had to leave it for awhile and there's a tentativeness to return, others of us have chosen to stay.  Either way, there is no illusion that any one of us has chosen a better path.  It is simply our path for now.  When we gather together we most often put aside our differences and celebrate our lives for the greater good of remaining united in compassion, mercy and "unusual kindness".  We trust that Someone greater is doing a saving, healing, transforming work in us. 

We do the same with our children and grandchildren.  We gather them to our hearts and listen attentively - now that we're older - to the grievances, the hurts, the joys they've experienced through their day to day.  We find ways to tell that 'good news' stories that bind us all together, and we forgive the hurts and make straight a path to our truest selves together.  We let the Divine life flow in, through, around and out of us and we respect the different paths our children have taken, learning to listen to their flow inside of the Divine - whether they are aware of it or not. We are learning to trust their mistakes as a way to their inner wisdom, and we are willing to suffer them gently.

This is how I understand staying with and praying for unity with my Christian brothers and sisters. There is no upper handedness or self-righteousness or superiority to wield on this journey.  There is only deep listening, growing respect for the gifts each Christian family brings to the table, and a deep knowing that Divine Trinity is gathering us together in ways unknown to us; a Mystery so deeply, silently at work, we are being woven back together to the life of Christ in our world without our hardly being aware.

Years ago, when I was MUCH younger, it used to be easy to focus on the negatives of how distant, different and strange other Christian traditions seemed to me.  Or how much better my own tradition and hence I was in relation to everyone.  (seriously so laughable)  How humorous to me now.  Now, they appear like the eccentric aunts or uncles in the family, or the wild teenager, or the amusing niece or nephew in an unbroken story of family - all as natural and fondly loved as the air I breathe.  And because I love them more and more, the Voice in me opens and the stories are shares from the heart to the heart, on the altar of our souls.  That's where unity is found and trust and hope in Someone greater than ourselves is born.