Jesus promises in today’s Gospel that the gates of the netherworld, the gates of Hell, shall not prevail against His Church. One of Hell’s greatest works, and one of the Devil’s most powerful weapons, is the spreading of disunity. The name Devil, Diablos in Greek, means “to throw apart.”
If Hell and the Devil, then, are great sources of disunity, the Church is a great, and even greater, source of unity. This unity ultimately comes from God, who founded the Church, and who makes the Church one with the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the ultimate source of unity in the Church was not God, there would be no hope of the Church prevailing against the gates of Hell; there would be no hope of unity triumphing over disunity. The unity of the Church which comes from God, however, is not just an invisible bond that ties us all together as members of the Church. This unity is visible. And it has to be if the Church is to be the Body of Christ, if it is to be incarnate, flesh and blood, even as Jesus was and is incarnate.
And so God not only gives us an invisible source of unity, Himself, but He gives us a visible source of unity in St. Peter and His successors, the Popes. Jesus founded the Church upon St. Peter so that there would be a visible and permanent source of unity—a rock-like source of unity—for the entire Church even until the end of time. One of the chief responsibilities and purposes of the Papacy is to preserve unity in the Church. The Pope “is the first servant of unity” (Pope St. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint n. 94). He is to preserve unity in the Church’s faith, unity in the Church’s worship, and unity in the Church’s community life.
Today’s liturgy draws our attention, in particular, to this first aspect of unity which the Pope is called to preserve in a visible and permanent way. This is the unity of the Church’s faith. You’ll notice, in our Gospel, that Jesus makes St. Peter the rock, the foundation, of the Church in virtue of his profession of faith. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This profession of faith does not come from St. Peter himself, though. It doesn’t come from his own flesh and blood, but from God. Jesus says to St. Peter, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” The Church has always seen in this text Jesus giving a particular gift to St. Peter and his successors the Popes. This is the gift, or charism, of truth. And Jesus gave this gift to the Popes so that they would “reverently guard and faithfully explain” the Church’s faith which Jesus handed on to the Church through the Apostles (Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus ch. 4). This is one of the greatest gifts of the Papacy: The Popes help preserve in a visible and permanent way the unity of the Church’s faith.
But even if the Pope is the first servant of unity, even if He is the one principally responsible for helping preserve the unity of the Church’s faith, we ourselves are also responsible for this. We are not off the hook. Each of us is called to be a servant of unity in the Church—in our families, our parishes, and our communities. If the Pope is the visible rock of unity for the universal Church, then we are called to be smaller stones of unity right where we are. Each of us is called to be servants of unity by seeking the truth and remaining faithful to it. We preserve the unity of the Church not by watering down the faith or avoiding difficult teachings, but by clinging to what Christ has revealed and what the Church has faithfully handed on. In a world that often confuses unity with compromise or truth with opinion, we are called to witness that real unity is only possible when it is grounded in truth.
This means we must be committed to learning our faith, to forming our consciences according to the teaching of the Church, and to standing firm in the truth, even when it’s unpopular or difficult. It also means being patient and charitable with those who struggle with the Church’s teachings—helping others come to understand the truth, not by force or anger, but by clarity and love. We are servants of unity every time we choose fidelity over false peace, conviction over confusion, and communion with Christ and His Church over the spirit of the age.
Saints Peter and Paul both gave their lives for this unity of faith—Peter by his leadership and witness in Rome, and Paul by his tireless preaching of the Gospel to the nations. Let us ask their intercession today, that we too may be faithful servants of unity, standing firm in the truth that sets us free, and so build up the Church from within. Amen.
