The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-01-16
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment Considsred or Ineonsiderats

by the faithful for the conversion of all men tn the
one true Church. This octave Of prayer that they
all may be one, as Thou Father in Me and in Thee
that they also may be one in U.s." was set up as an
official devotion throughout the Church by Pope
Benedict XIV in 1916.
The Church has the essential task of winning
Souls There are no times seasons when her
children are without the obligation of showing forth
the truth OF their holy religion Our lives our works
and our words; our ideals, our attitudes: our en-
ployments, and even our dress and our manners
must steadily show to the unknoWng and unbe
hevng world that we have the gift beyond price
and that It is our deepest desire to extend this
gift to all others.
Despite the fact that We have the unique truth
we grow careless; We tend TO follow in the ways of
people who have serious thought or purpose that
reaches beyond earthly life We who are meant to lead
not in prideful or vain display but in holiness
OF life and in splendor of example-are too often
content 10 follow. We forget the duty hich comes
with the privilege of being Catholics We drift into
the fashion OF this world which passeth away"
In our own day-n 1916 just 81 years ago
Me Holy Father Benedict XIV established the Unity
Octave for two reasons. First to send up TO God a
tremendous prayer for souls that abundant graces
might come upon all men and move them to know
and to embrace tho true religion Secondly to
arouse IN Catholics awarenesS OF their unceasing
obligation of praying always for the spread of Gods
kingdom on earth. Both purposes tend to the same
end; they are phases of The missionary effort of the
Church. But, as special phases perhaps the second
Is more urgently important than the first.
The Church herself never grows lax or weary:
she knows her purpose, she hears to-day, as she
heard two thousand years ago, the command Teach
all nations" But the children Of the Church through
whom her effort is to be made fruitful need con
tlnua prod and reminder TO attend TO their duty.
Such prod and reminder is the annual Church
Unity Octave.
Outside the Church there is much talk of unity
But it is talk of unity on human terms and by human
arrangements and compromises. OF no such unity
do VIC think We pray for the uniting of all men
IN the Church What is needed by mankind is
unity with Christ according TO the plan and the com
mand OF Christ That many seets should amaIgamate
pruning doctrine and practice here extending
custom and exercise there is less than meaningless
for the achieving of true unity. Social or political
unity might emerge from such coalescng action;
religious unity only when men forget all
about concessions and human claims to respond in
full obedience to the voice of Christ.
About four hundred years ago there was not
able disruption of the people. It was not the first
nor perhaps the greatest of such disruptve move.
ments the experience of the Church. From the
very days of Our Lords human life among us there
have been groups of people who followed Him for
time but found His teaching hard "and walked
more with Him" From the earliest days of the
Church mistaken and prideful men have set their
own word against the word of Christ and even with
the declared purpose of serving Christ have aban-
doned His Church and have become its opponents
Heresy is as old as human pride and human weak
ness
Therefore the great upheaval in Christian Europe
of four centuries ago nothing new. Perhaps the
most singular feature OF IL as a heretlcal movement
the self.destroyng character of its fundamental
docrlne-thc doctrine that each individual man is
nfallible in his private Interpretation of the Scrip
ture Here is the direct and active OF dis
unity. And from the start. the people who followed
the principal of private Interpretation were seat
tered into sects and divisions of sects almost with
out number Many OF these people and these groups
of people quickly lost their hold upon the essential
Christian truths-thai Christ Is true God as we'll
as man; that the Blessed Virgin is actually the
Mother of God that the Holy Eucharist is Christ
Himself Soon The Redeemer was forgotten, and
Christ was regarded as merely a man of ideally
perfect life. great leader teacher His words
in the Sermon the Mount were sentimentally
cherished, His tremendous words which established
the Church and the Blessed Eucharist for
gotten.
Now in our own times the scattered peoples
who claim the Of Christian, sre,--in areas
outside The Catholic Chuch-crying out for union,
Of disunion The Church, through the Sovereign Pom
tiff reminds us of our great opportunity and obi
cation: that is. reminds us that we must meet the
need and answer the cry Of these questng people.
We must, by prayer and good life call them into
the "harbor of truth and the ark of salvation" We
have what they seek not knowing what ii is for
which their souls arc hungry, We must effectively
bring TO their attention the fact that in the Catholic
Church alone is their hope and their peace and the
home of their souls.
"0ther sheep | have, which are not of this fold;
them also must bring And they shall hear n,B uotce.
And there shall be fold and one shepherd" Here
is the unity for which we pray: the unity of men
unGer the shepherding of Christ in the hearing Of
His voice which he gave To His one Church when He
said "He that hesreth you, heareth Me"
Not IN compromises, pacts agreements, move
ments plans, program es, amalgamatons. or or
ganizations will the unity we pray for be found II
Will not be found when men agree; IT will be found
only when men obey. II will be found when mer
outside the Church forget all about their getting
together" and meeting issues" II will be founc
when they humbly hear and heed the Voice which
calls them to the fold, That they may so heal
and heed is our earnest prayer In this Octave.