The thirst for unity

THIS is what we should actively foster these days. We seem to be running amok, and in a bitterly divisive and destructive mode lately. We cannot go on like this, unless we have no other interest in life than to destroy ourselves until death, doom and irretrievable perdition.

Why, even little issues, faults and problems are blown out of proportion, creating a lot of noise and generating waves of tension in everyone. What is needed is healing, reconciliation, understanding, restraint, prudence, etc. In short, unity.

Unity is a basic need, a law of life. It's not only a necessity for the individual, but also and especially for the society. It is what makes us live properly and decently, and work effectively.

It is a constant and permanent need of ours. But we have to learn to work it out, simply because we cannot presume that it will just come about automatically. We are more complicated than what that would imply.

Disunity can only manifest a wound that needs to be healed, a problem that needs to be solved. Disunity is anti-life. It heralds and leads to death. Before that happens, it causes a lot of waste, in time, money, effort, everything.

Disunity makes men hate each other, fight and quarrel. It starts when one only his own interest in mind, without giving due attention to the common good. Its worst virus is when one's self-interest is seen to be what the common good is, even what God's will is.

It follows the logic of the flesh, the world and the devil. It's good in sowing intrigues, in destroying possible bridges among the people. It's reason on a rampage, unattached to faith and charity, and fed by passions and anger.

Unity, of course, is not a matter of uniformity. This is because we simply are different, unique individuals, unrepeatable despite modern cloning technologies, and with different backgrounds and circumstances.

Unity can tolerate and even foster a certain variety and plurality of views and positions. It respects them and tries to integrate them into a life-enriching combination that would redound to the good of all.

We need to build and live unity because we are all brothers and sisters living in the same world and in the same country. For a Christian believer, these natural reasons can even give way to supernatural motives.

We need to be united because we are all children of God, the image of Christ imprinted on each one of us inspite of our sinfulness. We have to learn to look at each other as another Christ. We have to learn to help each other to be consistent to our Christian dignity.

This unity can only be possible if union with Christ is made its source and fount. It's a union that is nurtured by a continuing dealing with him through prayers, sacraments, sacrifices, active application of Christian doctrine to life and culture.

This is the unity that is able to overcome the fragmentation of our inner life, and the division and conflicts of our life with others. This is the unity that is the antithesis of sin, the cause of all conflicts. It's a unity that requires constant conversion.

Only when we are united with Christ can we aspire to be instruments of unity and peace wherever we may be. We have to develop the habits of praying for everyone, of sowing understanding and charity in our dealings with others.

We have to develop the appropriate attitudes and virtues--wanting always to be agents of concord among us all, ready to overcome conflicts, to forgive and to ask for forgiveness also. We should stay away from any trace of resentments.

These efforts, of course, will need a lot of sacrifices, of self-denial, of acts of humility. We need to know how to be silent, how to listen and understand others well, how to be truly interested in the good of others, giving excuses for them whenever necessary.

This is the thirst for unity that we should always have!