The Special Meaning of January 25

This Monday is marked by the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul.  It also marks (among other things; more later on that) the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  There is a definite connection here—let’s explore it.

    When the Octave of Prayer (the original idea) was first developed, the idea was to begin on the Feast of the Confession of St Peter (18 January) and end with the Conversion of St Paul.  The former feast no longer exists in the liturgical calendar, but for practical purposes the time-frame remains.  When the practice began to be attractive to some Protestant denominations the suggestion was to move to the days leading up to Pentecost (the logic is unassailable—the “miracle of translation” celebrates one language and universal understanding).  But the original dating has carried the day.

    Does “Christian Unity” imply “conversion”?  And what does “conversion” mean in this context?  For Fr Paul Wattson, I think the answer is pretty clear.  He was himself a convert from the Church of England, and it’s hard to resist thinking he was hoping for all Protestants to re-unite with Rome (after all, the “Confession of St Peter” was the opening of this time of prayer).  St Paul had a dramatic experience on the way to Damascus, as we all know; might all Christians suddenly have a similar experience that would lead them to the Successor of Peter?  Wattson would surely have echoed Hamlet’s words, “’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.”

    The pope is the single largest stumbling block to Christian unity—so said Pope St Paul VI.  On the other hand, I have heard Protestant ministers of differing denominations who told me they didn’t always like what our popes say, but they wish they had a pope who could say something authoritative.  Perhaps if we could truly implement it, we would be able to move forward toward each other more closely by following the words of Pope St John Paul II (in Ut Unum Sint, his 1995 encyclical on unity, paragraphs 95-96):  “…to find a way of exercising the [papal] primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation. …Could not the real but imperfect communion existing between [Christians] persuade Church leaders and their theologians to engage with me in a patient and fraternal dialogue on this subject, a dialogue which, leaving useless controversies behind, we could listen to one another, keeping before us only the will of Christ for his Church…?”

    “How good and pleasant it is, when brothers and sisters dwell in unity!”  These words come from Psalm 133.  Yes, it would be “good and pleasant,” but we are called to more than this—we are called by the Lord to be one, to be united.  This does NOT mean 100% agreement in all things, but it does mean embracing the famous saying of St Augustine: “In essentials, unity; in opinions, freedom; in everything, charity.”  Can we not at least agree to work toward what the “essentials” are, and go forward from there?  Of course we can; all we need to do is choose to do this…

    Finally, 25 January 1841 was the publication date of John Henry Newman’s famous thrown-down of the gauntlet to his brothers and sisters of the Church of England—Tract 90.  Suggesting that a Catholic could in conscience swear to the Anglican 39 Articles of Religion, he incurred the wrath of the heads of the Oxford colleges, leading to the Tract’s, then Newman’s, condemnation.  4 years later Newman did what Wattson later did:  left the Church of England for the Church of Rome.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Wattson knew this.