Reconciliation and Unity

by Vassula
Egypt, October 21th - 31th 2002

Repentance is the gate that leads souls from darkness into Light. Therefore, to this day we cannot say we are all walking in the light since we are still divided and fragmented. We are all equal before God because we are all His children. It does not suffice to belong to a church to be saved. It is necessary to follow the Commandments of God and as Christ responded to a woman, "Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it." (Lk 11, 28) Those that are not Christians are no less creatures made in the image of God and destined ultimately to live in God’s house in the end. It is written: "There is no favouritism with God." (Rm 2, 11) Jesus Christ redeemed all the people of the earth, therefore, salvation is granted to everyone if he lives in the light of God. But those who consciously reject God and His Law of Love will be condemned by their own choice.

If we have not entered the Light, how are we to see God’s divine Will to progress into reconciliation and unity and to know in which was he desires this spiritual unity? How are we to feel our way and where we are walking if we are still in the dark? Darkness is at war with the light and if we do not hurry and repent, that little flickering flame that remains in us will become extinguished. We need to hurry putting aside all our prejudices and draw oil instead from the reserves of humility and love, to enliven once more this flickering flame into a living torch.

Each church should be willing to die to its ego and to its rigidity, then, through this sort of death in dispassion, Christ’s presence will live in them. Each church has to go through an unceasing repentance and then join itself to Christ’s divine love of mankind that will wipe away its past and its present failures. Through this act of humility, unity will be accomplished. Scriptures say: "Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up." (Jm 4, 10)

If the churches are able to go beyond the negative obstacles that separate them, which according to Scriptures are against the fulfilment of the unity of faith, love and worship among us, Christ will be faithful to His promise of releasing a time of peace in the entire world, drawing every creature into His Mystical Body, fulfilling thus His words give to us in His prayer to the Father: "May they be one in Us, as you are in Me and I am in You, so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me." (Jn 17, 21) In this supplication of our Lord it is very clear that the unity He was asking would be a unity that would affect the entire world. But for such a unity that the whole world gets affected, it cannot be done without the help of the Holy Spirit endowing His power to mankind by raising apostles to go out and evangelise the world, drawing the whole world’s faith in Christ. Therefore, considering our remaining division, I would say that the Church has not yet attained its perfection but has shown its weakness in this respect.

The Church is weak and needs to be consolidated through unity. As it is right now, the Church is losing gradually its light in its weakness, to the point that it cannot stand up to go and draw the healing ointment from the well of life, that is the Holy Spirit. In a message Christ is saying to the Church: "...and your fragrance left you". It seems that in its fear of losing its identity and its valuables, especially the Orthodox Church, it not only closes its windows, but makes sure that its doors are well barricaded as well, prohibiting any light to penetrate within it, not realizing that its interior is collecting mould. Because of this unreasonable fear it prohibits grace to flow in it, obstructing the breeze of the Holy Spirit that can refresh it. Anyone who acts out of fear and makes sure that windows and doors are fully barred is usually afraid of being burgled of their valuables. But it is not only the Orthodox Church that behaves in this manner, there are others as well who behave in this way too.

The beauty, the glory and the fruit the Church gave once in the beginning of its existence, has now fallen down like rotten fruit. If this is wrong, then where is that Apostolic Church in its eagerness to witness to the Christ, to lay itself down on the altar of martyrs, to humble itself in the arena of shame and pain rather than deny the Christ? Where is that discipleship fervour of faith and burning with desire to global evangelization? Oh Christ, how much more must Your precious Body be pierced and lance and fragmented before we realize that we may have divided your Body as tools of the 2divider" himself. We have done it unwillingly and unwittingly. Help us to find and preserve that remnant so sacred called your Church. Help us to put it together again. A Church unity determined to bring your Second Coming as a revelation globally.

Yet, the Holy Spirit will not stop there because of human ambitions and our incapability of reconciling. He is out there, making a lot of noise so that in the end even the deaf who barricaded themselves will hear Him and finally open the doors of their heart, and those that were dead will come to life; from having ceased to be they will once more be.