Ecumenism

THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES TO HELP OUR WEAKNESS

Eleuterio F. Fortino

In the triennial program of preparation for the Jubilee, 1998 «will be dedicated in a particular way to the Holy Spirit and to his sanctifying presence within the Community of Christ's disciples» (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 44). This expression from the affirmation of the Holy Father embraces all baptised Christians «in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit». Even the theme of the prayer for the unity of Christians during this year will be focused on the Holy Spirit. The Mixed International Committee between representatives of the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Council of Churches, which every year prepares the teaching aids which are given throughout the entire world, immediately after the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, on the proposal of Catholic members, agreed to assume for its triennial preparation analogous themes to those chosen by the Holy Father. In the Mixed International Committee there are present two members of the Ecumenical Commission of the Central Committee of the Grand Jubilee for the Year 2,000.

The prayer for the unity of Christians in the next year will have as its theme «The Spirit Comes to help our weakness» and has as its background a passage (Romans 8, 14-27) from the letter to the first Christians of Rome. In the introduction of the teaching aids we make this indication: «These prayers, these reflections will be in harmony with the other particular intentions which are at the heart of Christians during 1998. The members of he Catholic Church are preparing to celebrate the Grand Jubilee of the year 2,000. We have asked them during this year to make the Spirit as the subject of their prayers and in particular to implore the Spirit in order to obtain the grace of Christian unity, so imperative in the end to render the world a convincing witness of the Gospels». Through this initiative, the information on the preparation to the Jubilee reaches, in a positive spirit and in action of prayer, even to all the other Churches and ecclesial communities. That is, because of its nature, it focuses on soliciting communion of intent and spiritual involvement.

1. The Holy Spirit and the other Christians.

The development of the theme in the eight days of prayer for the unity of Christians (January 18-25 for the Northern Hemisphere and around Pentecost for the Southern Hemisphere) presents these theological moments: the sons of God are lead by the Spirit of God, the Spirit renders them adoptive children, so much so that he is able to turn to God and call him «Abba - Padre», the Spirit renders them in this way heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, yet, the human condition remains weak; and man groans inside his body together with creation; in fact, we were saved, but in the hope that the spirit comes to help man; the Spirit intercedes for the saints; glory shall be revealed to us. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, describing the common elements that other Christians have with the Catholic Church notes the following: «a real union with the Holy Spirit, so that even in them with his sanctifying virtue works through gifts and grace». This presence of the Spirit among other Christians is efficient, «he fortified some of them to the spilling of blood» (LG 15).

In the letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, and in the encyclical on the ecumenical commitment, Ut Unim Sint, the Holy Father indicated a fundamental dimension of the unity of Christians when he spoke of a «common martyrology», in the sense that in this century, Christians coming from different and divided Churches have given a witness of faith to Christ. «The witness to Christ borne even to the shedding of blood has become a common inheritance of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants» (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 37). This communion in the Christian testimony, or communion of saints, is situated in the most profound dimension of being a Christian. «These saints come from all the Churches and all the ecclesial communities, and have opened their passage to the communion of salvation» (Ut Unum Sint, 84).

The common witness given in the name of Christ is about to receive even more attention in the other Churches. In the Orthodox Church in Romania, with the patronage of the Orthodox Archbishop of Cluj, S.E. Bartholomew Anania, a publication was carefully produced on the martyrs during the Communist regime (Marturisitori de dupa Grati, Slujitori ai Bisericii in temnitele comuniste, Cluj - Napoca, 1995). In the introduction, the Archbishop informs that the publication was made by asking each diocese or ecclesial district of all the present Churches in the country for information on people of their community who suffered persecutions. There are therefore, the Orthodox witnesses, Catholic ones (Latin and Greco-Catholics), Protestant ones. The style of the information is lined with clear intentions and precision. The various characters are listed in alphabetical order. For example, the fourth name is presented in this way: «Aftenie Vasile, Auxiliary Bishop of the Greco-Catholic Metropoli of Blaj and general vicar of Bucharest. Born in 1899, arrested in 1948, locked in a cell in the Ministry of the Interior and later at Varest. Died in a cell of the Ministry of the Interior in December of 1950». This scarce description is made in a publication on the new martyrs. The dry style of the words covers the violence of the situation. Those words, then, are sufficient enough to explain the veneration which the people had for the Bishop of Aftenie. His is the symbol of a un-interrupted pilgrimage. He, the student of the Pontifical Greco College, had studied in Rome.

We Catholics - from the time of the Second Vatican Council - are invited to esteem the values which are truly Christian, issued from the common patrimony and which are found amongst the other Christians. They come from the same Spirit. Furthermore, «we must not forget that what comes from the grace of the Holy Spirit in the separated brothers, can contribute to our building» (UR 4).

It must be remembered that it does not only deal with the other Christians as single and baptised, but reunited in Communion. The other Churches and ecclesial Communities in the mystery of salvation have their own role: «Because the Spirit of Christ does not refuse to serve itself of them as an instrument of salvation» (UR 3).

2. The Spirit comes to help our weakness

To this positive aspect there corresponds a second one which expresses the weakness of the human condition and of the analogous situation of the divided Christian community. Man is tied to the «frailties» to which the world itself is subject to. The created «suffers and moans still today» just as «even we moan inside ourselves» (Romans 8, 19-23). We are waiting for the liberation. And the wait is comprised of a mixture of emotions, of sufferings, and of hope. The same situation of man is one of incompleteness and aspirations. «Because in hope we are saved» (Romans 8, 24).

In dealing with the search of the full unity amongst Christians, the Second Vatican Council had explicitly recalled the human incapacity of finding a solution. This proposal of reconciling all Christians «is beyond the strengths and gifts of humans». Therefore, the Council «puts all of its hopes in the oration of Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us and in the strength of the Holy Spirit» (UR 24). It is precisely for our weakness and our incapacity that the Holy Spirit comes to help us. «The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness» (Romans 8, 26). He comes to assist us above all so that we can ask God that which we need for our salvation, to attain the full unity and for our own good «because we do not even know what we should ask» (Romans 8, 26). The help of the Holy Spirit is explicated in various ways:

a) Jesus said to his disciples: «The Holy Spirit which the Father sends in my name will teach you every thing and will remind you all that I have told you» (John 14, 26). The full Communion will not be found in some accord of compromise, but around the Word of God, around all that the Lord «has told us». We will find it there in the footsteps of the great ecclesial Traditions which are continuously inspired by the presence of the Holy Spirit. This anamneic function of the Spirit is a security for Christians to not go forth in search for vane and insufficient models of unity. The Spirit teaches every thing.

b)In the second place, the Spirit will obtain a pedagogical, orientative, and ephiphantic function. «When the Holy Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to the entire and complete truth» (John 16, 18). The promise of this mystalogical function is a guarantee for the ecumenical dialogue focused on surpassing all the differences in the affirmations of the revealing truth. The entire and complete truth will be connected to the right prospective - perhaps in a new organic synthesis of complementary affirmations - of partial theological formulations, but not exclusive to other possible and real aspects.

c) Finally, the Spirit - Spirit of counsel and of strength - will support the intelligence and will fortify the will to continue in the search for unity which demonstrates itself more and more clearly as founded on the Gospel.

d) For all of this the Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente can affirm that «unity, definitively, is a gift of the Holy Spirit» (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 34).

Concluding Observations

The week of prayer of Christian unity, according to the decree on ecumenism is «the soul of the entire ecumenical movement» (UR 8). Tertio Millennio Adveniente (n. 37) calls for an intensification of prayer. «In the remaining years of this millennium, the Church must turn with closer supplication to the Holy Spirit, so that he can implore God for the grace of Christian unity. This is the crucial problem for the evangelical witness of the world».