VATICAN - “Let us make our own the desire of St. Paul, who dedicated his entire life for the one Lord and for the unity of his mystical body, the Church, giving with his martyrdom, a supreme testimony of fidelity and love for Christ”: the Pope's catechesis dedicated to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Four times, in His prayer to the Father from the Upper Room – before suffering His Passion – Jesus prays that his disciples may be “one,” and twice, He mentions the reason for this unity: that the world may believe. “Full unity is connected, therefore with the life and the very mission of the Church in the world,” Benedict XVI said during the General Audience on January 21. “[The Church] should live a unity that can only be derived from her unity with Christ, with its transcendence, as a sign that Christ is the truth. This is our responsibility: That the gift of unity be visible for the world, in virtue of which our faith is made credible.” The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis during the Audience to the theme of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which began January 18 and concluded on January 25, feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle.
“Aware that unity is above all a 'gift' of the Lord,” the Pope said, “there is also a need to pray for it with untiring and trusting prayer. Only going out of ourselves and toward Christ, only in this relationship with him can we come to be truly united among ourselves. This is the invitation that, with the present week [of prayer], is directed to believers in Christ of every Church and ecclesial community; to him, dear brothers and sisters, we should respond with generosity.”
The Week of Prayer this year bears the theme of a verse taken from the Prophet Ezekiel: “That They May Become One in Your Hand” (37:17), chosen by an ecumenical group from Korea. “In the passage of the book of the prophet Ezekiel from which the theme has been taken, the Lord orders the prophet to take two sticks, one as a symbol of Judah and his tribes and the other as a symbol of Joseph and of the whole house of Israel united to him, and he asks him to "join" the two such that they form "just one stick" in his hand. The parable of unity is transparent...The hand of the prophet, which joins the two shoots, is considered as the hand of God himself that gathers and unites his people and finally, the whole of humanity.” The words of the prophet can be interpreted as an exhortation to Christians, “to pray and to work, doing everything possible so that the unity of all the disciples of Christ is fulfilled, to work so that our hand is an instrument of the unifying hand of God. This exhortation appears particularly moving and urgent in the words of Jesus after the Last Supper.”
In the second part of the Biblical reading, the dispersion among the people is recalled. “The Israelites had learned erroneous cults, had assimilated mistaken concepts of life, had taken on customs foreign to divine law.” The Lord then declares the need to free them from sin, purify their hearts, for an interior renewal that is the necessary prerequisite for unity. Ezekiel's vision is particularly eloquent for the whole ecumenical movement because it “makes clear the unavoidable demand of an authentic interior renewal in every component of the People of God, which only the Lord can bring about. We too should be open to this renewal, because we too, dispersed among the peoples of the world, have learned customs very far from the Word of God. The Pope then mentioned the Decree on Ecumenism issued by the Second Vatican Council: “There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart. For it is from renewal of the inner life of our minds, from self-denial and an unstinted love that desires of unity take their rise and develop in a mature way" ("Unitatis Redintegratio," 7).
The Week of Prayer for Unity, is thus for all of us “a stimulant toward a sincere conversion and an ever more docile listening to the Word of God, toward an ever deeper faith,” as well as an “occasion for thanking the Lord for how much he has conceded already 'to join' one to another, divided Christians, and the Churches themselves and ecclesial communities.” Benedict XVI then mentioned the various stages of the ecumenical path which “has progressed with firm conviction and sure hope” in the past year, as the Church has taken on the task of “implementing every effort for the restoration of full unity.” In particular, the Pope recalled the “encouraging signs of spiritual convergence,” between the Churches and the theological dialogues; the encounters held at the Vatican and on apostolic journeys, with “Christians from every horizon”; the three visits made by His Holiness Bartholomew I to the Vatican; the reception of the two Catholicoi of the Armenian Apostolic Church, His Holiness Karekin II of Etchmiadzin and His Holiness Aram I of Antelias; the shared sorrow with the Patriarchate of Moscow at the passing of our beloved brother in Christ, Patriarch His Holiness Alexy II. In addition, he mentioned the encounters with the representatives of the various Christian Churches of the West “with whom continues the dialogue about the important testimony that Christians should give today in harmony, in a world ever more divided and facing so many challenges of a cultural, social, economic and ethical character.”
In concluding his catechesis, the Holy Father recalled that in the context of the Year of St. Paul, “what the Apostle Paul left written for us regarding the unity of the Church” and made an exhortation: “Let us make our own the desire of St. Paul, who dedicated his entire life for the one Lord and for the unity of his mystical body, the Church, giving with his martyrdom, a supreme testimony of fidelity and love for Christ. Following his example and counting on his intercession, may each community grow in the determination for unity, thanks to the diverse spiritual and pastoral initiatives and the assemblies of common prayer, which tend to become more numerous and intense in this week, bringing us to already foretaste, in a certain way, the joy of full union. Let us pray so that between the Churches and ecclesial communities, dialogue in the truth continues, indispensable for resolving divergences, and [dialogue] in charity, which conditions the theological dialogue and helps to live united for a common testimony.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 22/1/2009)