Vassula gave this talk on Unity during the recent TLIG pilgrimage in the Holy Land (August 2013):
Since 1985, the Lord called me to enrol me into His program of Unity and this was the last thing I ever expected in my life to happen. The Lord never ceases to surprise me.
Already back in October 14th, 1991 the Lord Jesus said:
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“Your mission, is to bring My people under one Name, My Name, and break bread together.”
The basic message of ‘True Life in God’ is Unity. It is a call to turn our lives into an unceasing prayer. It is a call to go through a true repentance, to repent of our division, and to reconcile with God and neighbor. It is an urgent call for the Churches to unite in diversity. Jesus says: “I have preached to you and to others, do not stop there, forward the teaching I have given you… Evangelize with love for Love (14.10.91)
“Unify My churches; the real Christian is the one who is inwardly a Christian and the Unity is and will be in the heart; Unity will not be of the letter but of the spirit.
Many ask, why is God speaking in our times? The Lord God comes to respell His Word and remind us of His precepts and His Law. This is what He said said: “Tell them that the God they have forgotten has never forgotten them.”
Our Lord Jesus calls His priests and asks His shepherds:
“Is there anyone willing to work with vigor and love to rebuild this tottering House? Is there anyone in there who is willing to defend this House? Is there anyone who understands now what I am saying? Is there anyone in My House who is disposed to expand the Kingdom of God?”(20.8.98)
“I desire My entire Church to be united; those that persist in remaining separated have already separated My Heart from theirs; realize the gravity of your division, the urgency of My Call and the importance of My request; I need your heart to unite you and rebuild My Church united into one, inside your heart; all I ask is love to break the barriers of your division…” (20.10.91)
The then Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople who was so close to bring forth unity with Pope Paul VI once wrote: “If we are satisfied to repeat our formulas, hardening them against our fellow Christians, then our inheritance will become something dead. It is sharing, humility, reconciliation which makes us truly Orthodox, holding the faith not for ourselves – if we did that we should simply be affirming yet one more historic confession of faith – but for the union of all, as the selfless witnesses of the undivided Church.”
In our efforts, we should be willing to pray more together because prayers are heard and answered, whereas dialogues and formulas are just spoken words. This does not mean that we should eliminate our dialogues or formulas, not at all.
But, what is more important for us, the letter or the Spirit? If we say, the letter, than we will work like administrators when dealing with God’s affairs and we will not be justified nor will we ever achieve anything, because it will be like saying to the Spirit, “look here, I am not a child any longer and I can walk by myself.” The letter then will kill the Spirit and we will become truly administrators shifting papers only and leaving every meeting empty-hearted.
In October 14, 1991, Jesus said: “Tell them that the Heart of the Lord is Love and that the Heart of the Law is based on Love; tell My people that I do not want administrators in My House; they will not be justified in My Day because it is these very ones who have industrialized My House.”
So what is more important, the law or the Spirit? If we say the law then already we will be judging our brother sitting near us belonging to the other church, while he, will be already judging us and we will hear from each one of us: “We are in the full truth and we are the ones who are right.” And again we will be fragmenting Christ and again we will achieve nothing.
If we start with the doctrine and its contents, there again we will end up perhaps even more separated and fragmented, never reaching the essential. I don’t mean by that, that we should violate the doctrine since the doctrine is the very existence of the Church. But, if we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us by our sleeve, instead of us trying to lead the Holy Spirit for once, then the Spirit will enliven the letter and the law, and He will show us the true doctrine, that Jesus Christ is the only active principle in us despite our differences in doctrinal terminology. For this act of charity, we need intense poverty of the spirit, humility that is, and an overflow of generosity.
So let our doctrinal dialogues begin with the Holy Spirit. Let Him be the one who leads us by our sleeve to show us in our heart that the essence of doctrine should be based on love and humility which is the key to unity.
Then on the 20th May 1987, again the Lord said: how can a Body function if one or two of its members are disabled or injured or dismembered? Would it have the same capacity and strength as one, which is whole? My Church is My Body, so how can My Body function if they disabled it?
Seven months later, 23rd December 1987: “Do you know why My lambs are scattered and My Body maimed? do you know why disharmony reigns in My Church? it is because they have been walking at night without any light to guide them; seek Me who am the Light and I will guide you, cast away your bigotry and your obduracy; be meek and humble; open your hearts and let My Sap fill you up; I am your Good Shepherd who loves you;”
On the 12th of April 1990: “If you allow Me to enter your heart, I shall make you see My Wounds given to Me in the house of My best friends; you shall be awed by their depth and struck by the numerous marks savagely inflicted on My Body; the Wounds of My Body are such that they left Me maimed in their battle;”
When Pope Francis spoke in his weekly general audience on June 19 he said: “The Church is the body of Christ, but when Catholics fight among themselves or Catholics and other Christians are in conflict with one another, they make Christ’s body suffer. Don’t make the body suffer with our divisions and conflicts.”
“Unity is a grace we must ask from the Lord so that he would free us from the temptation of division, fights among us, selfishness and complaining about each other – how much damage, how much evil that chatter creates,” he said. “How much damage is created by divisions among Catholics and between Christian communities. Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians – why are we divided? We must try to bring unity.”
“Pray that the Lord would give us unity,” he said. “Let us pray to the Lord to make us members of the body of Christ, ever more united to Christ, help us not to make the body of Christ suffer with our conflicts, our divisions,” he said.
(So the Pope is ready for unity, are we? Are the other Churches ready as he is ready?)
Back in 1987, the 4th of April the Lord lamented saying: My Body is weary and injured. My Body is the Church; I wish to consolidate My Church.
Our Lord would have not used the word ‘consolidate’ if the Church was strong and healthy, but we must acknowledge that in remaining divided, we have indeed weakened the Church, razed it to the ground, so much, that several times our Lord says that His Church is in ruin and many members of the Church are nearing putrefaction.
When the Lord asked me, ‘which house is more important, your house or my House?’ And my reply was, ‘your House Lord’ He said: ‘Revive My House, embellish My House and unite My House.’ He did not say rebuild My House, but said, ‘revive ‘ My House, a strong term, showing at what state we damaged the Church… this is so deplorable…
On the 2 June 1987, Jesus asked me to draw three iron bars standing rigidly near each other. They represented the Protestant Churches, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox. Then He asked me to draw them again by uniting the tip of the bars, thus joining together, and He said: to unite you must all bend by softening.
Yes, softening from our rigidity, rigid as iron bars that are unbending. After eight days, the Lord called me again and said: will you see Me in My Church? Confused, I asked: Which Church Lord, which one do You mean?
He responded: All are My Churches they are all Mine; they all belong to Me and Me only, I am the Church. I am the Head of the Church. … I am One God and have One Body, a Body that they have lamed; millstones have damaged My Body.
- I said: My God, You seem so upset!! Indeed He was!!
- He answered: Upset? O Vassula, why, why have they cruelly dismembered Me? My Body aches, it has been torn apart…
In that message the Lord reminds us that He is the Head of the Mystical Body that is the Church. But we, we in our arrogance and haughtiness, we made sure to dismember the Head for without the Head no one can dictate us, or reproach us or correct us. The Body has no say. We managed to silence Christ.
How are we to feel our way and where we are walking if we have dismembered the Head? We cannot say we are walking in the Light since we are still divided and fragmented. The Lord said on the 7th October 1991:
“tell them also how I abhor insincere hearts; their solemnities and their discourses weary Me; tell them how I turn away from their loftiness and their rigidity; their judgment appears indeed great and impressive to men but not to Me, I cannot congratulate a dying church nearing putrefaction; tell those who want to hear that:
unless they lower their voices, they will never hear Mine; should they lower their voices then they will begin to hear Mine and thus do My Will; I am One, yet each one of them made a Christ of their own; I am The Head of My Body, yet all I see are their heads, not Mine; tell them to lower their heads and they will see Mine; tell them to lower themselves so that I may be able to lift them to Me;”
Again in that same general audience, in June 19 this year, Pope Francis said: “And like any real body, he explained, the church has a head — Jesus Christ, “who guides, feeds and supports it” — and if Catholics are not firmly united to Jesus, the head, then the body dies.
“Let us remain united to Jesus,” Pope Francis said. “Let us trust in him, direct our life according to his Gospel, nourish ourselves with daily prayer, listening to the Word of God, participating in the Sacraments.”
The Orthodox delegation that came from Constantinople to meet Pope Francis on the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul they said: “unity is not a luxury but an imperative…” the Pope told them: “the search for unity among Christians is an urgent task, urgency more than anytime, we cannot disregard this. Our witness demands that we should at last be able to proclaim with one voice, the good news of the Gospel and celebrate together the Divine Mysteries of our new life in Christ.”
October 20, 1990: The Lord said: “with your expiations and your fervent prayers offered to Me with love you can alter coming disasters, you can extinguish the flaring wrath of My Father; with your prayers God can relent; you can embellish My Church; you can bring together My People under My Name to celebrate Mass around one Altar…
Well before these words of the Pope on the 19th April 1988 Jesus said:
“Behold, what joy I will have when around One Altar you will gather, and around this same Altar you will praise Me; acknowledging your mistakes, repenting for your rebellion and remembering My Love for you and loving one another as I love you; children, be perfect!
And still more strongly Jesus cried out one day (14.10.91):
"Unite! assemble! invoke My Name together! Consecrate My Body and My Blood together! Do not persecute the Way! Humble yourselves and bend to be able to unite and glorify Me; you speak of the Spirit but do not act in the Spirit; you speak of the Way but you rank first to obstruct It! - How little do you know Me ...
you call out My Name, yet you murder My children between the sanctuary and the altar; I tell you solemnly, all of this will be brought to you in the Day of Judgment; can you face Me and truly say: "I am reconciled with My brothers"; can you truly say: "I have not differentiated myself among brothers, under Your Holy Name; I have treated them as my equal"; when you present your case before Me I shall then say to your face: "away with you, you have not treated your brothers as your equal; you have massacred daily My Body; where is your triumph? while I was building, you were tearing down; while I was reassembling you were scattering; while I was uniting you were dividing!"
yet, even today, if you come to Me as you are, I can heal you, I can transfigure you and you will glorify Me;”
If we remain in the sin of division, how do we expect then that the Body of Christ be recognizable in us if we have rendered it in such a deplorable state? Let us not turn into inanimate matter or like sepulchres by not putting into action the Words of our Lord. Let us become the perfect Icon of Unity and do as He says.
On June 30, 1987 the Lord said: Vassula, deep in My Body I have the lance’s point (blade) penetrating My Heart. It is there always; I want the lance removed; glorify My Body in establishing peace unity and love.
This metaphoric way of speaking is rather common in the language of Jesus. However, sooner or later He would explain to me their meaning. He made me understand that the blade of the lance represents our division. It is still deep in His Heart, meaning in the core of the Church. Then the Lord expressed His wish, He said: I want the lance removed… 26 years have past since that message was said and still the lance’s blade remains in His Heart.
In a later message (14.11.91) Jesus said: I had left you with one Church but hardly had I left, just barely had I turned back to the Father, than you reduced My House to a desolation! You leveled it to the ground! And my flock is straying left and right. For how long am I to drink the Cup of your division? Cup of affliction and devastation!
However, no matter how much the Church struggles to attain Unity, so long as the Feast of Easter is not unified and not celebrated together our division will remain and there will be no progress because Christ has been asking His shepherds for years now to unify the dates of Easter promising us that if this is done He will do the rest to unify us all in diversity.
I have taken your faults on Myself, I have reconciled you to the Father and My Life I laid down for you; so, what could I have done more that I have not done? (20-1-92) And now I make a special appeal to all those who are under My Name and are working for Unity and peace, I ask you to come to Me like a child and face Me answering Me these questions: brothers, have you done everything you can to preserve the Unity of My Body? (10.3.90) Will I brother one more season go through the pain I have been going through year after year? Or will you give Me rest this time? Am I to drink one more season the cup of your division? Or will you rest My Body and unify for My sake the Feast of Easter? In unifying the date of Easter, you will alleviate My pain, brother, and you will rejoice in Me and I in you and I will have the sight of many restored. (14.10.91)
One day (27.10.87) when I said to the Lord, that yes, we are under His Authority, but, it is organized and there is a system of belonging in one of the Christian Communities, He said: all are the same in My Eyes, I have never wanted My Body parted, it is you who have dismembered Me! You have decided upon My Body! You lamed Me. I continued and said to Him: Lord, I do not like to argue but can’t I tell that I am an Orthodox? I am an Orthodox.
He raised His Voice and cried out: Orthodox! Catholics! Protestants! You all belong to Me! You are all One in My Eyes! I do not make any distinction.
Obviously, we can tell that many have not taken seriously these words of Christ… How false and corrupt could one be! Despite the Gospel calling us to remain united, despite the promptings of the Spirit, our division remains.
Considering our remaining division let us admit that our humanity was interfering all along in God’s plans, our ego our stubbornness similar to Pharaoh’s stubbornness, and our pride, or our fears, all became a solid broad iron bar ignoring the groans of the Holy Spirit that asks us to bend in humility and love to unite. We walled ourselves each one of us in our own kingdom.
Love is missing. Jesus said. This division is directed against Christ. No matter how credible and righteous some of us would like to appear in the world’s eyes, and no matter how many Hail Marys and devotions and Kyrié elissons we would be doing, our resistance of putting into action Christ’s Will before ours and unite around one Altar, is a give away sign of fear and disobedience. So long as our hearts are not kindled with love for Christ and with the Fire of the Holy Spirit, we will remain as the scattered dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision. Unity will come only when all of us will truly begin to love Jesus Christ.
These sterile and non-actions that hold back unity go against what Christ asked the Father in His Prayer when He said: “May they be one in Us, as You are in Me and I am in You, so that the world may believe it was you who sent Me.” Jn 17,21) And even more when we do nothing about it to bring unity in the Church but remain silent, like sepulchres in a vast graveyard.
Let us pray for the leaders of each Church assemble all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit read the Signs of the Times which call us to Unity around one Altar sharing one Cup and one Bread and together proclaiming in one voice that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all. (Eph. 4,6)
