Third Sunday of Easter, May 4, 2025
Pope Francis has designated 2025 as a jubilee year, a year of hope and forgiveness. I have spoken of the jubilee in this bulletin column and will say more of it later in the year. Archbishop Perez has issued an important pastoral letter regarding evangelization and renewal in the Archdiocese. I have spoken of this also and we will study and react to his letter in the coming months.
However, 2025 marks an extremely important anniversary, one that ought not to be missed, the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea. The first several centuries of the Christian era were a time of persecution and the oppression became fierce in the first decade of the 300s. The emperor Diocletian was determined to exterminate Christianity; he failed and was succeeded by Constantine who legalized Christianity and then promoted Christianity and finally become himself a Christian. The Church went from fierce persecution to being favored by the emperor.
However, the Christianity that emerged from the fires of persecution was divided. The obvious division was between Arianism and what would later become orthodox Christianity. The divide had to do with the identity of Christ. Arian claimed that Jesus was not God, that He was human, though higher than all other humans. According to Arius, Jesus was not eternal and not equal to the Father. There are scripture passages that seem to support this view. It seemed at the time of the Council of Nicea that the majority of Christians accepted Arianism. What would later be orthodox Christian belief seemed to be a minority view.
The other divide was between East and West. Constantine moved the headquarters of the Roman Empire from Rome to what is now Turkey. The wealth, learning and energy of the Church was in the East and Eastern and Western Christianity had developed different customs and ways of practicing the faith.
The Church lacked unity so a Council was convened at Nicea. It is noteworthy that the Council was called by the Emperor Constantine, not by the Pope or any bishop. To this day, the eastern churches regard Constantine as a saint, while western Christians understand his importance in church history, but do not venerate him. Moreover, the Council of Nicea was basically a gathering of the Eastern Church, with minimal participation by the Church of Rome or the West.
The result of the Council was that Jesus Christ was understood to be true God and true human, “God from God, light from light, true God from true God”. To this day, we recite the Nicene Creed at every Sunday Mass.
As the centuries passed, the divide between East and West deepened until in 1025 the Church lost the precious gift of unity and was divided into Catholic and Orthodox churches. Later the Protestant Reformation would create even deeper divisions and foster the multiplicity of Christian churches that exist now.
One of the purposes of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s was to heal the divisions within Christianity and to seek the way of unity. The dream of unity is still far away. Jesus prayed on the night before He died that His Church would be one. Sadly, this prayer has not yet been answered.
We should not give up, though. The first step is to recognize Christians who are not Catholic as brothers and sisters in Christ. In this regard, we have made progress. However, true unity does not mean glossing over differences or deciding that truth does not matter. True unity requires hard work, honest dialogue and prayer.
Pope Francis had intended to go to Nicea in 2025 to mark the anniversary of the first ecumenical council. Of course, this is not possible. Pope Francis, like his predecessor popes, was committed to Christian unity. Given the importance of the Council of Nicea of the quest for Christian unity, perhaps the new Pope will go. Regardless, this anniversary deserves to be honored by Christians of all denominations.
