Now we are trying to find the key to bridge our divisions among different faiths.My question is, how are we to find that Bridge that will transform us to thepoint that we can bring peace in the world, when in our own Christian circles,we are still debating, disputing and keeping our Churches divided?
Indeed, what we are all in search of is beyond our human capacity. ‘How tobridge our divisions and bring peace to the world?’ And what is that sort ofBridge? Unless God intervenes, I can’t see that on our own we are able to reachpermanent solutions and resolve our divisions and put an end to them. But, Ilike when Jesus says: ‘Do your best and I shall do the rest.’ That’s a tone ofhope here. And so, what I do believe is that it will be only by the Mighty Handof God that can unite us; we need a miracle!
And I believe in miracles and that God is able to bring us all together. But thatdoes not mean that we must just sit there and take it easy and relax and wait fora miracle to drop from Heaven. The Lord wants us to work with sincerity,sacrifice and love. God’s Calling is an urgent call, calling us all to rediscoverHim; He is calling us to rediscover Him by dying to self and ego, and notthrough administrative reforms, no! we have to allow God to reveal Himself inour hearts in an intimate way.
Here, among us, we have a rather biggish group of Christians from differentChurches, and of which I belong to one of them. In the last few years during ourpilgrimages, we, who came from 23 different Church denominations actuallyput into practice the so longed unity in diversity that has been a perpetualdialogue between Churches for many years and still is.
Inspired by the Spirit of God, suddenly something happened, we did not see ourdifferences anymore and we became one, sharing around one Altar the HolyEucharist. These were sublime moments of brotherly love and of sharing,glorifying God. We had a foretaste of what unity will be like, and the words ofunity we were expressing in our dialogues for so many years took shape andform and became alive and were not anymore read only on a printed page butbecame visible and tangible.
So everything is possible with God, if we obtain His favour and if we ask Him!Faith and trust in God is crucial. True faith makes us see through the Light ofGod that everyone around us is indeed a brother or a sister to us, loved by theAlmighty God. So let our faith in God augment and make us confident and boldenough to approach God asking Him with determination for His help, and for amiracle.
But then, God in exchange for His favor will ask first of all from us, to hear ourcry of repentance. To acknowledge that we have been unethical and lackingrespect in our behavior towards each other, disrespectful of others’ beliefs andtraditions, failing to be transparent, failing to admit our failures; failing to havespoken up about dictatorial leadership which are causes of extreme violence,and sufferings in our world; He will demand from us to die to our ego, once andfor all, to our pride and prejudices; He will ask for sacrificial love, and to turnour lives into an unceasing prayer, but above all, He will ask us to live thegreatest 2 Commandments of the Law, and that is ‘to truly love the Lord ourGod with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.’ And ‘to loveour neighbor as our self.’ Then, when God will see our sincere heart, HisMajesty will cover us with His graces and He will anoint us and show us theway. And, He will do the miracle.
In Sura XXII (22) called the Pilgrimage in section 10 verse 77and 78 it is written “Adore your Lord and do good.” “Be awitness for mankind! So establish regular prayer, give regularcharity and hold fast to Allah.”
In short, what God our Lord wants from us is to become theLiving Image of His Deity, that has no trace of darkness forHe is the Alpha and the Omega, and that we should realizethat alone we can do nothing, but with God on our side, theimpossible will become possible. And so I’ll end up by saying,that it’s God or nothing!
So let prayer be our Sword against Satan who delights in our division and ourdestruction. And God will give us the necessary Light to illumine our mind andsoul to show us that the Bridge of Unity is there, but in our darkness we arefailing to see it! It is a Bridge made out of Heavenly Sapphires that represent allthe Virtues.
The moment we will truly repent of our innumerable sins, God will forgive usand in His Forgiveness He will restore our sight to be worthy to see that Bridgethat brings peace to the world and into the reality of God. Glory be to God,whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask, orimagine!
Leave a Reply