Octave of Christian Unity

Traditionally, the Church celebrates the Octave of Christian Unity between January 18th and 25th which are appropriately the Feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul.  These feasts have symbolic importance as Peter was the Apostle to the Jews and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

During these eight days we are to concentrate on what all Christians have in common and to stop focusing upon our differences.  We are to pray as Jesus did to His Father, “that they may be one as you and I are one.”

Instead of unity the Church experiences greater and greater division as we enter further into an era of religious competition whereby some Congregational churches seek to increase their membership by denigrating and insulting traditional churches, like the Catholic Church. 

Instead of denigrating and insulting each other we are to reach out to those who share a belief in Jesus the Christ.  A major focus of the Second Vatican Council was the work of Christian unity, known as ecumenism. In the years leading up to the Council, Saint John XXIII showed a great attentiveness and openness to the Holy Spirit, making it clear that work and prayer for Christian unity is inseparable from the Church’s mission to evangelize.

In his opening address to the Council he said, "The Catholic Church considers it her duty to work actively so that there may be fulfilled the great mystery of… unity, which Jesus Christ invoked with fervent prayer from His heavenly Father on the eve of His sacrifice…”

With the arrival of Pope Francis and his insistence on trusting others and learning from them, a resurgence in the ecumenical movement is underway.  The Christian churches seem poised, for the first time in a long time, for a major reconciliatory breakthrough.

In his encyclical “The Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis calls for unity when he writes, “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord””. 

We are the messengers Jesus is using in the world today to bring His message of love and unity to everyone we encounter.