Cracks in Christendom

Understanding Church history and our place in it

11/12/2024

John 17:20-26 Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: "Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."

Have I ever shared with you Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s brilliant analysis of the 2,000 years of Church history? It summarizes and synthesizes the sprawling record of the Church’s life on earth so simply and elegantly I could never forget it. And I mention it today so we can better understand the life and ministry of St. Josaphat, the saint whose feast we celebrate today.

But more importantly, it may give us an insight into the work of the Holy Spirit in building up the Church, the Body of Christ for 2,000 years plus. But wait, there’s more! Once we see how the Holy Spirit worked in St. Josaphat at a particular juncture of our Christian family story, we can also perceive what the Holy Spirit is doing with each of us today.

Archbishop Sheen said that roughly every 500 years there was a major loss to the unity of the Church. First, though, imagine the Church having spread all over the world by the missionary zeal of the 12 apostles. For example, St. Thomas came all the way to my home country of India. St. Mark ventured into Africa. And St. Paul, according to Rm 15:24, had every intention to go to Spain.

In a true sense, the apostles’ evangelistic explosion fulfilled Jesus’ missionary mandate at the end of Matthew 28. And they lived Ps 19:4 to the core: ‘Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” By the year 100, when the last apostle died, therefore, Christianity had reached the four corners of the earth and stage of salvation history was set.

But then the devil set to work to undo the work of the Holy Spirit with the Bride of Christ. Like the poet John Donne wrote pointedly when he had marriage problems: “John Donne, Anne Done, Undone.” In the year 570 in the obscure dessert of Arabia Mohammed was born in Mecca.

His new religion would catch on like a California wildfire all across Africa and Arabia. And Christians were scorched by the conflagration and denied Christ in order to worship the god of Mohammed, Allah. If Rome is the center of Christendom, then the Christians to the south of Rome shattered the unity of the Church

By the year 1000 tensions between Rome and Constantinople to the East (modern-day Istanbul) had grown rife and to the breaking point. In the year 1054 the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope in Rome mutually excommunicated each other. And that break of the East gave birth to the Orthodox Churches. You may have seen bumper stickers with the three letters “OCA”. That stands for Orthodox Church of America, which came into existence in 104, when Christians to the east of Rome shattered the unity of Christ’s flock.

The year 1500 would see the arrival of the reformer Martin Luther, who launched the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Beginning in Germany, one European country after another started to question, to doubt, and then to reject the authority of the pope in Rome. That crack in unity led to a revision of understanding of Scriptures and sacraments are essential to salvation. And as you know, most of Europe lies to the north of Rome. And by the end of another 500 years, there was another crack in Christendom.

And at this 500 year juncture St. Josaphat arrives on the scene, born in 1580. He grew up in present day Ukraine and Poland, and his ardent desire was to repair the cracks in Christendom. Josaphat was convinced that Jesus’ desire was exactly expressed in the gospel we read from John 17.

Jesus prayed at the Last Supper: “Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you Father are in me and I in you…” In other words, unity is one of the hallmarks of the true Church, and it is incumbent on every Christian to maintain that oneness with the visible sign of unity, namely, the pope in Rome.

And so the ministry and martyrdom of St. Josaphat was to bring the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Poland back to Rome, and become Roman Catholics faithful to St. Peter and his successors. This is how the Holy Spirit was working through St. Josaphat to repair the cracks in Christendom.

So what does all this mean for you and me today? Well, for one thing we also stand at another 500 year juncture of Church history in 2024. Could we be witnessing a large-scale defection of the West from Rome? Do you hear Catholics questioning the pope, doubting his leadership, and maybe even wanting to break away?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The best predictor of the future is often the past. Can you see how the pattern of 500 years is about to repeat itself? In other words, our work today is the same as Josaphat’s work in 1580, namely, maintain the unity of the Church under the headship of the pope in Rome.

An ancient Latin maxim perfectly summarized this Christian perspective, “Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia,” meaning, “Where there is Peter, there is the Church.” And the opposite is also chillingly true: “Where Peter is not, the Church is not.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!