I find it disheartening when I hear people taking great pride in the fact that Christianity is divided. It makes me reflect on John 17 all the more and the Spirit within me weeps at the message we send to all people of goodwill: The body of Christ is divided!
But I would like to assert that the mystery of Christ’s body can not take pride in this sad reality because of one important fact noted by the Second Vatican Council document on ecumenism: Christ’s body is not divided. He never intended for the body of Christ to be divided into numerous smaller bodies. It makes no sense and it contradicts John’s 17th chapter of his gospel.
When are we going to get it? When is the Spirit of GOD going to prevail upon us that divisions among God’s people is the poorest witness (Greek derivative: martyr) to the Gospel of love? When are we going to figure it out that one can not divide God into separate parts and one should not divide Christ’s body likewise. It makes NO sense. And I find this pride of those who perpetuate division as quite troublesome!
Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us. Mold us, melt us, form us, use us. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us!
“When is the Spirit of GOD going to prevail upon us…?”
When we want the Holy Spirit to direct us and we allow Him to be Our Lord.
Too often we want to rule our lives and we are lords of our selves.
If we were to allow God to rule His body on earth by individually submitting to Him, He could bring all the members of the Body together.
But we like to have influence on others in His Body, so we hence have struggles for power and thus suffer divisions on many levels.