Christian Unity

Gospel: Matthew 4: 12-23

Last week we began the week of Prayer for Christian Unity with the Baptism of the Lord.  Today we close this week of prayer with Word of God Sunday.  These are two things Christians hold in common - baptism and God's Word, who is Jesus.  Today's Gospel of the call of the first four disciples provides for us a roadmap to Christian unity.

Consider: Jesus calls together two sets of brothers who are economic rivals to one another.  Brothers don't often get along, even less in business dealings, and on top of it we bring together rival groups of brothers to this common ministry.  No one would do this, and yet Jesus does and it works!  Why?  These men had heard the preaching of John and accepted the baptism of repentance.  They sought forgiveness for their past sins.

Now they accept the ministry of mercy that is the invitation of Jesus to follow him.  They set about to preach good news to the poor and to heal others.  They become an extension of the mercy of God they themselves had received.  The key to Christian unity lies in these two things: repentance for our sins, and setting aside our self-interest, our power, our material wealth - and engaging together in the works of mercy, to go about healing others and proclaiming good news.