Tag: jesus

Examples where Orthodox Christians and Catholic Christians Already Experience Oneness and Unity

~ cornerstoneunites

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  • We believe Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah, the Christ.
  • We believe we are mystically united in the invisible One Body of Christ which cannot be divided.
  • We believe in the sacramental life and in the same seven sacraments even while the Orthodox acknowledge a few more
  • It is common for Orthodox Christians and Catholic Christians to marry each other. It is believed that in the marriage bond the two become one.
  • In education: Orthodox Christians in America often send their children to Catholic schools where the children also receive Catholic religious education during the week and then at their own parish on Sundays; many Orthodox Christians also choose to be educated in Catholic Universities.
  • Greek Orthodox Christians in America adapt Catholic Christian ministry templates to fit their own ministry needs because we are the closest theologically.
  • Some Roman Catholic Parishes are embracing the use of Iconography.
  • It is common for Orthodox Christians and Catholic Christians to pray together and worship our God together.

Curiously, the filioque clause, the Pope’s role in the administrative structure of the Church, and the other disagreements and divisions existing between Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholic Christians do not seem to prevent this oneness/unity.

Perhaps these and other examples are all reality because God is creating us to be the One Visible Church?

How Communion with the Cornerstone Could Create Full Communion

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Photo by 愚木混株 Yumu on Unsplash

Imagine having access to a medicinal treatment known to heal what is broken into a united wholeness but before administering it insisting that everyone, patients included, agree about which doctor is supremely in charge of the medical field and how each doctor and medical group rank and order among each other. 

It seems to me this is a similar approach to the full communion conversation between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity.   People are expected to be healthy and whole somehow on their own before being allowed to receive medication together that is known to makes us healthy and whole. 

While we can celebrate our agreements along with how fraternal friendships among East and West clergy of the highest ranks are the best in years, hinging full communion based on human will seems too fragile a foundation than what God has already done:

“…that they may be one as We are.” (John 17.11)

 “…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us…” (John. 17.21, 22)

“…that they may be made perfect in one…” (John 17.23)

How much faster would full communion be realized if we shifted emphasis to our full communion with God?   

God Himself changes hearts and minds as people spend time with Him and grow in loving relationship with Him when they commune with Him.  If this happens on an individual basis and within a local community why not apply this to Orthodox and Catholic unity?

If East and West clergy and laity began receiving the medicine of immortality-the Eucharist- with the Christians with which we want to be in full communion, could God Himself change us and inspire us so we could more quickly resolve our complex, complicated organizational and theological differences?    

It is my hope that Orthodox and Catholic Christians will soon be instructed by our Hierarchs to receive the Eucharist together trusting that our True Cornerstone God makes us perfect in one, in full communion, while we work through our differences.

Jesus the Christ Defines Christian Unity

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Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Disciple John is concerned because there was someone doing the works of Jesus Christ who was not exactly following them.  John forbid him because, to use modern Christian terminology, he was not recognized by the disciples as in communion with them.

Jesus replies, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me.  For he who is not against us is on our side.”[1]

Eastern and Western Christians work miracles in Jesus’ name, do not speak evil of Him, and are not against Jesus and the disciples.   According to Jesus’ definition, we Christians are already on His side altogether.

Our present unity is proven even more when certain Christians in both East and West are discovered many years after their physical death intact, that is, the body is not decomposing; they are incorrupt! 

How can Christians living in division experience these same miracles if we disagree on so much?

Perhaps because we are communing from one Divine source whose very Being unites us!

Our reality is as if God is saying, ‘Look, I’m blessing you the same as each other while you continue to fight over who is more right.”

[1] Mark. 9.38-40

https://www.si.edu/object/photogravure-painting-woodland-scene:saam_1967.72.330

Welcome to the Family

~ cornerstoneunites

The Greek word in the image means Crowns and refers to the rite in the Greek Orthodox marriage service where the couple are crowned in oneness with God’s blessings conveyed through the priests, unworthy as they are.

Traditionally Greek : Stefana

https://openverse.org/image/3c89346c-4431-4b32-8b35-c7a1dd9d1d01?q=greek%20wedding

The movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” has a touching scene displaying the desire to marry and belong to the entire family. After the fiance has freely chosen to be baptized he lovingly says to his wife-to-be, “I’m Greek now.”

Similarly, when someone is baptized in a local church it is said that they have become Christian, Orthodox, Catholic, or one of the Protestant denominations; some even say they are a member of the Body of Christ.

Jesus is quoted as saying they become something different. He says His disciples are to go and make disciples of every nation. (Matthew 28.19-20). Some churches today use the term “catechumens” instead.

Then Jesus says to baptize those disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Very literally that person becomes a disciple of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In hoping for when all Christians embrace that we are united by the Cornerstone Christ, going forward after every baptism each Christian tradition could exclaim with great joy, “Now you are a disciple of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; welcome to the family!”

To read ideas for how Christian traditions could remain diverse in our newly expressed oneness, please read this post, https://cornerstoneunites.com/2024/02/14/a-three-in-one-solution-for-christian-unity/

Unexpected Christmas & Lenten Gifts

~ cornerstoneunites

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https://openverse.org/image/06716a17-83e9-4f67-8e07-9cfa8fe475d2?q=nativity%20of%20christ

During the 2023 Christmas season, the local Christian radio stations played traditional and modern Christmas music.  On Christmas day, the radio hosts spoke movingly about Jesus’ birth as the Messiah Incarnate.  Their messages made Western Christianity seem to proclaim the very same beliefs about Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary as do Eastern Christians.   

Inspired by the Lenten season, that season of changing one’s mindset and returning to God- sometimes even in a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn- Christian unity sounds simpler when returning to Jesus’ teaching about how His Church is being built together.

There is an applicable dialogue between Jesus and Peter which is written in three of the four Gospels.  Here is a portion of it as it is written in the Gospel of Matthew 16.13-18.

“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”  So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church…”

Jesus validates Peter’s faithful response with a pun filled proclamation, ‘…you are Peter (his name means rock in Aramaic and Greek) and on this rock (the rock solid revelation that Jesus is the Christ) is the foundation upon which I will build My (emphasis mine) church.’

Jesus says He is the one who builds people into this group He calls ‘church’ based on their own confession that He is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Living God.    

Because Lent invites us to change our mindset to return to God, church leaders would change how they have been thinking about the criteria for unity. Doing so would make it possible to announce in our lifetime that Eastern and Western Christian unity has already happened by Jesus the Christ Who builds people into His church when they confess belief in His rock solid criteria as expressed above.

Such an announcement of unity may also acknowledge that the many and serious disagreements between Christians’ theologies and traditions will continue to be studied and possibly some of them even solved with God’s grace and guidance in our theological dialogues as we live and grow together as His one church.

*For an idea of what the three Christian Churches could exist like as one, please read “A Three in One Solution for Christian Unity” in this list of posts.

Parable of the Three Sisters

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Three sisters grew apart over the years.  Practical and serious matters contributed.  First, the sisters all moved away from each other to different countries and even different continents taking on the languages and cultures of their new homes making it difficult to converse and find commonalities.  While establishing their families they could not connect frequently because they lived in a time before cell phones and social media existed.   

One of the major divisive issues happened during their adulthood years when the oldest decided she would be in charge of the other two regarding family matters.  The other two wanted all three of them to continue discussing issues together as equals.  As that tension simmered, each sister started to believe that the rest of the family should believe exactly as they were about life and even about their religious beliefs without room for a person’s growing into certain beliefs.  Disagreements on these decisions resulted in their relationship growing even more distant.  One day, the sisters mutually severed ties with each other because they could not agree on everything.  Later, the youngest sister tried to reunite the sisterly bond they shared when they were younger and so she protested persistently but the older sisters would not budge, inviting her instead to take a side.

As the years went on, extended family members who were pained by their family division tried to help unify the family.  Not every family member was on board because complete agreement on what divided them would not be accepted by everyone.  

Those who wanted reunion worked carefully and slowly because so much hurt had happened over the years.  Prayerfully, many meetings varied in degrees of agreements and disagreements.   

One day, a young family member had the thought that their family is already and has been one even with all the disagreements.  Realizing how naïve their idea might sound to everyone after so many years of division, for encouragement they turned to St. Paul’s ministry to the Corinthian Christian community in that first letter found in the New Testament.  There Paul considered the Corinthians to be one community even though among them were factions, divisions and dissensions.  The Corinthians believed different things at different times about life and faith matters and the apostle Paul still invited them to continue receiving the Eucharist together.

The young person invited their family to consider the similarity of the situations.  Instead of trying to agree themselves into oneness they could acknowledge that Jesus Christ already joined into one new creation the children of Israel with everyone else centuries ago- which meant their family was already one even though they disagreed on important issues.

The patriarchs and matriarchs of the family carefully considered and quickly chose St. Paul’s approach to help heal their family divisions so that in their own lifetime reunion would be realized.  They knew not everyone would agree with the sudden change and began working creatively to communicate the news. They also encouraged each family to continue their own beloved cultures, customs, beliefs and traditions that had developed over the years. 

The main change would be that they now understood themselves as one because of Jesus Christ’s ministry.  They were even more hopeful that everyone would grow closer together during their discussions finally feeling faithfully firmer on the rock foundation.

This is a parable about the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Christian families and is my prayer for a way for us to know ourselves as one.