Schism - a meditation and prayer

Schism is not at all a matter of citing one text against another, biblical or otherwise.

What we can forget is that Our Lord and Our Lady take schism personally. Some of the most fervent members of schismatic communities should be Our Lord’s & Our Lady’s closest friends – and yet, because of a crisis that maybe happened many centuries before they were born, they go through their whole lives without Our Lord being able to meet them in the Sacraments. To speak very bluntly, sexual intercourse is only the ‘ectype’ – the Archtype is the Blessed Eucharist. This is a very great Mystery, and a very great and sharp wound in His Heart – and that of Our Lady (not to mention the other Saints). It is like having a great friend whom you can only ever communicate with via a postcard, when you would love to spend the evenings together. Or like a rejected suitor.

Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote a meditation on this topic. He reminded us that typically, schisms come about when a valid truth of some importance is being neglected by the Church. Certain people, even of genuine good will, therefore become so focussed upon this defect that they forget the larger picture and, instead of working and praying to remedy the fault within the church of Christ, found their own community. It is a law of human behaviour that, once any movement becomes institutionalised, it acquires a live and an agenda of its own. The history of such sects is not encouraging. Sooner or later the original enthusiasm wears off and the group either continues to fragment, stagnates, or individuals trickle back to the Catholic Church. It is incumbent upon us all to ensure we do nothing that, by our bad example, might drive the well-meaning out of the Church; and also, it is our place to make Reparation, if only by a prayer. Here is a suggestion, to add to our Daily Prayers:

Prayer

Act of Reparation

for the Tragedy of Schism

– that rends the Seamless Garment of the Mystical Body of Christ

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament Divine, All praise and all thanksgiving: be every moment thine (3x).

Eternal Father, I offer Thee Thy Beloved Son's patience in face of the Rejection of the Pharisees, the weakness of Pontius Pilate, the Mocking before Herod, and the Crucifixion, in reparation for the terrible acts of schism.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I offer to You, in commiseration, the Pain of Rejection, the desolation of unrequited love, the pity felt for a loved one away from the path.

Holy Spirit, instruct the hearts of those who love Thee, who are nonetheless misled and kept from Thee by false teaching.

Maria Consolátrix Afflictórum, console thy Beloved Son, and present these suffrages, along with my own daily crosses, before God the Father for the speedy termination of all schism.

Amen