America Magazine
The Jesuit Review
The Memorial of St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Josaphat, Bishop
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace.
Find today’s readings here.
A Google search for St. Josaphat reveals that he “was a Basilian hieromonk and archeparch of the Ruthenian Uniate Church who served as Archbishop of Polotsk from 1618 to 1623.” Huh? If you understood any of that, congratulations. You are more qualified than I to work at America and opine on Scripture.
Despite sounding like a character from “Dune” or maybe a 2,000-page high fantasy novel (this guy was nick-named the “soul-snatcher” and beaten to death), St. Josaphat’s work is incredibly relevant for us today: He lost his life working for Christian unity.
In St. Josaphat’s time, that work was aimed at the reunion of Catholics and Orthodox Christians. But today, it can sometimes be hard to imagine how we can bridge division even between our fellow Catholics.
America made it an editorial policy in 2013 to not call our fellow Catholics “liberal” or “conservative,” but internal division in the church has only grown since then. We write each other off for inadequate care for immigrants or the unborn. Shouting matches on social media in which self-identified Catholics talk past each other abound.
St. Josaphat died for the goal of bringing Christians together. Online martyrdom—or, God forbid, real-life martyrdom—may not be our calling, but the least we can do is intentionally lower the temperature. Pope Leo XIV recently implored the faithful to be wary of a terminally-online faith that is “disconnected” from the “ecclesial body.” Community with those whom we disagree with is not preferable but necessary for an authentically Christian expression of the universal Catholic faith.
So how do we bridge the gap? How do we reach our fellow Christians as St. Josaphat did?
Christ always provides an example. He frequently elevates and finds virtue in the “othered,”—the Samaritan, the tax collector, etc. We must be like Jesus and see the best in those we deem the out-group, or better yet, see individuals past their identification with rival factions. God calls us to greater inclusion, not exclusion, of our brothers and sisters.
This does not mean that we need to ignore disagreement or give up on dialogue. But unless we, as St. Paul implores us, commit to “bearing with one another through love,” such exchanges will become impossible.
St. Josaphat, pray for us that we may, “with all humility and gentleness,” strive to “preserve the unity of the Spirit.”
Edward Desciak is an O’Hare Fellow at America Media.
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