Truth, Unity, and Concord

Fr. Michael, Saint Petroc Magazine, Vol. III, No. 1, February 2000.
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Let God Arise and Let His enemies be scattered! The Truth will prevail, and perhaps sooner than later, but has it happened yet? Progress yes, but has the Truth prevailed among us?

It never seems to happen, people have a hard time admitting, at least in their lifetimes, to having made mistakes. But the issue which is crucial is that the Truth has prevailed.

The Church in the world may be full of major sinners, occasional saints, and lots of ordinary people. It is not pure Orthodoxy on one side and compromised Orthodoxy on the other. all of us are deeply sick and compromised - at all levels. This does not mean that the Truth is compromised: He has promised never to leave us in spite of our fallenness. In fact it would probably not be unOrthodox to say that given the necessary Church organisations in which we live, that they are as ill as we are individually. There is however, a pure confession of faith - but it is beyond formulae, beyond mere words; it is the confession of the martyrs.

How then do we respond to their confession of the Faith? Well, we are trying, but thank the Lord that the sum is greater than the parts. The Church militant and triumphant is more than we see. The Church is not only us fallen members. The dynamic unity of the Church is the energy of Christ - the saints of the far and recent past are members of the one Church, as are our present day Judases as yet not deprived of the opportunity for repentance, as too are those standing at our right and left on Sundays: One Church, One Faith, One Lord, One Body.

The issues between us are so often not about Truth. Oh yes, these dialogues are always in the name of Truth, but have we not seen over the many years that they are usually about "I am right and you are wrong?"

We want to be in the True Church - and we are. We want to be in the Truth of Christ, and if we retain Communion with Him in faith and life then we are. We want Salvation but we stand between ourselves and Christ. We want to end sin and death, and there is such an end. So many of us spend our lives trying to achieve that which God has already accomplished.