THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DECEMBER 14, 2025
In late November, Pope Leo made his first trip outside of Italy as pope, and t was to Turkey to commemorate a very important anniversary. 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea. The anniversary of the Council of Nicea is a big deal for all Christians! 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 once and for all; 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 mainstream 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 hu- mans. According to Arius, Jesus was not eternal and not equal to the Father. There are scripture passages that 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 developed different customs and ways of practicing the faith.
The Church lacked unity so a Council was convened at Nicea in 325 AD. 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 deep- ened until in 1054 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. Pope Francis, like his predecessor popes, was committed to Christian unity. Given the importance of the Council of Nicea in the quest for Chris- tian unity, it is not surprising that Pope Leo attended the com memoration, thereby underscoring the importance of church unity. All Christians accept the Bible and all Christians accept the decrees of the Council of Nicea. From this starting point, we are working to re-establish our broken unity. Though Pope Leo's journey was to promote Christian unity among all Christians, the focus was particularly on healing the division between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe just about all the same things, but differ mostly on the authentic role of the successor of Saint Peter, the Pope. Moreover, there are hurts and prejudices from the past that still interfere with the goal of unity. We ought to pray for unity as Jesus wished.
