This past week at SSJD, I was able to make photographs of the font, their candle on the altar burning for unity and the crucifix at the front of the chapel. As I looked at these photos, I was struck about the truth that through our baptism we commit to work where we can for unity and that unity is found only in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Each time I go into the chapel at the convent, I dip my finger in the water provided and make the sign of the cross on my forehead. Through that simple action, I am reminded that through my baptism I am part of the body of Christ; I claim my baptism and recommit myself to a desire to live out the covenant of baptism between God and I. Sometimes I have taken one of the stones in the bottom and kept it with me in my pocket as a reminder of who I am and whose I am and what that means for my life, faith and ministry. A simple act that has a deeper meaning.
On Thursdays through the year, and throughout the whole of this past week, there is a candle that burns on the altar of the chapel as a reminder that we are praying especially for the unity of all Christians. Sometimes that unity is compromised; there can be barriers to being in communion with each other; we may be frustrated and experience brokenness in our relationship with others who follow Christ as we do. And yet, as Jesus prayed, so too it is our prayer ... that we may be one as He and God are one. We need to be intentional about being united to one another through the sacrament of our baptisms. That needs to always be our prayer and our hope as part of the body of Christ.
Ultimately, our unity comes through our belief in who Jesus is and the place Jesus has in our lives and in our faith. Jesus death on the cross, leading up to the joy and promise of the empty tomb of Easter morning, is the center of what binds us together. The Christ who died that we may have life and rose again that we may have hope unites us together wherever we are from, whatever our various interpretations of scripture, whatever our liturgical preferences, whatever our opinions about this issue or that issue. That is indeed a blessing. As we gaze up at Jesus on the cross, may we know ourselves to be baptized into that wonderful and sacred mystery, the body of Christ.
Thanks be to God!! Pray for the unity of the church. Amen!!
