Christian Unity - Peter, Paul, Thomas Aquinas

With the theme of “Called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord”(1 Peter 2:9), we have just concluded the Week of Christian Unity, which runs from January 18 until 25.  The Octave of Christian Unity begins and ends with special days in the liturgical calendar. 

January 18 marks the beginning of the celebration of the feast of Cathedra Petri at Rome (the Chair of St. Peter in Rome), until February 22. January 25 is the memorial feast of St. Paul’s Conversion.  Thus, the Octave of Christian Unity begins as we begin celebrating St. Peter being the first Pope, and concludes celebrating the conversion of St. Paul. 

Christians come together to proclaim in “una voce” of our shared experience of being delivered out of darkness  of our sins and ushered into the salvific light of God. In a way, this year’s Christian Unity theme is about being enlightened with God’s saving light, which is the mercy of God and the love of God.  In the Catholic tradition, the summit of unity upon proclaiming our shared evolving salvific experience of God’s light out of the darkness of sins is found in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Because the Eucharist is Christian unity as One Body of Christ being broken to nourish us, in our gathering, to keep us as One Body of Christ with Many Parts (1 Corinthians 12:12). 

The “Unam Corpus Christi” that we make up, by putting our diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11), bound by One Holy Spirit (e Spiritus Unam), is an embodiment of our “una voce” that reflects 1 Peter 2:9, with our heartfelt thanksgiving to God for delivering us from darkness into His light. 

Upon closing the Octave of Christian Unity, we have celebrated the Conversion of St. Paul. This is no coincidence, as Paul’s conversion was indispensable for the unity of the Church.  Unless Saul, who was a zealous persecutor of early Christians and enemy of the Church, converted and became Paul, which means “being humble”, churches may not have been established in the culturally diverse Gentile world. 

It was really Paul, who heralded the Apostolic Church, to break the wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, to bring people of all nations together as One Body of Christ, as described in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). What is hold people of various diverse backgrounds together in harmonious unity is love, which is supported by faith and hope, according to Paul (1 Corinthians 13). Furthermore, in Romans 5:5, Paul indicates that this holding love for our unity as One Body of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the essence of One Body of Christ with many parts, which represent various gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Romans 12:6-8) bestowed upon each of us, is love, which is the essence of the Holy Spirit. 

In fact, this unity, as One Body of Christ, the ultimate sacramental embodiment of love that Jesus has taught and further evangelized by Paul among diverse Gentile communities, is what the Octave of Christian Unity reminds us to keep striving for.  This is what we are “called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord”, as God has called each of us to step forward with our own unique gift of the Holy Spirit to form and sustain this One Body of Christ on earth.  

Having just celebrated the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, it is also important to know that Thomas also regarded love as the essence of the Holy Spirit, evoking the Triune bond of the three hypostatic divine figures: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In particular, Thomas described that the love nature of the Holy Spirit is best represented in the unity between the Father and the Son (cf. John 10:30), and this echoes Paul’s view on the Holy Spirit as love in Romans 5:5. 

Furthermore, in the Thomistic theological view, there is a symbiotic juxtaposition between the Eucharist and this One Body of Christ, characterized by love, which is the essence of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist is the Corporis et Sanguinis Christi offered to us so that not only we may attain the eternal life but also to become One Body of Christ, who is love and is the new Holy Spirit, as parakletos (John 14:16). Because parakletos, from its prefix, “para”, it is also what accompanies. Therefore, as we become One Body of Christ, representing the Holy Spirit, as parakletos,  we find Christ among us in this Body. And, this means that we are truly becoming  One with Christ, as the Son is one with the Father. 

Given this, it is no coincidence that the Octave of Christian Unity concludes with the feast of St. Paul’s conversion and that it is also near the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. 

Without his conversion, who else but Paul could have brought so many different types of Gentiles together during the first century? Without St. Paul, would St. Thomas Aquinas could have written Summa Theologica and so eloquently defend Paul’s teaching on Christian Unity also from the Trinitarian perspective?

Though the Octave of Christian Unity is over now, it is still during the feast of Cathedra Petri at Rome (until February 22). In fact, it is still during the traditional Christmastide (until the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and Mary's Purification - February 2). Therefore, we shall now reflect what Christian Unity, as One Body of Christ, is about in light of the incarnation of the invisible God, epiphanies (theophanies), and how this series of God's unfolding revelation has been prompted Peter and Paul to have led the spreading of the glad tidings in light of the purpose of Mass - Ite, Missa Est,  reflecting Jesus' commissioning words in Matthew 28:19.