If the breach between East and West is ever to be repaired, it will be Our Lady who shows the way.
The pages of Scripture are replete with tragic episodes of brother fighting brother: Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his siblings, Adonias and Solomon. Sadly, the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ did not put an end to fratricide and schism, as the divide between Rome and the Eastern Orthodox amply demonstrates. If we desire to live in peace, we need our common Mother to lead us back to Our Father’s house where mercy and justice can be found. If the breach between East and West is ever to be repaired, it will be Our Lady who shows the way.
One benchmark of our common roots is the Third Ecumenical Council, held in Ephesus in 431 A.D. The council fathers determined that since Jesus is both God and Man, Mary is properly called the Mother of God or, in the Greek, Theotokos or God-bearer. At that time, the various families of liturgical practice—what we know today as the Roman, Coptic, or Byzantine rites, for example—were taking their final forms, yet all were united in their common understanding of Mary.
Over time estrangement between East and West hardened into schism and enmity. The technically limited mutual excommunications of 1054 were savagely ratified in 1204 with the sack of Constantinople by the Western armies of the Fourth Crusade. These facts are well-known and frequently recounted in the litany of grievances of the “two lungs” of the Church.
Repetition of that litany leaves us with the status quo. Despite efforts at ecumenical bridge-building, most of the East and West are not in communion. There are notable exceptions, such as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Melkite Church, and the Maronites, but the largest groups in the East such as the Moscow Patriarchate and the Greeks follow a separate course from Rome. The question becomes how might we overcome this divide.
In my case, the Rosary was a powerful tool God and Our Mother used to bring me back into the fold of the One Church. While searching for the common roots of the Faith before today’s divisions, I became intrigued by the traditional fifteen-decade Rosary. Its combination of the tangible and the contemplative began working on my heart, mind, and soul. As humans created by God, we need to appreciate both our body and spirit. East and West may have different focal points for these needs. In the East we reverence icons by touch, even kissing them. In the West, we have holy water and the Rosary as tangible aspects of devotion.
Kissing. Touching. Viewing with devotion. Repeating the name. Aren’t these all the actions of a child toward his mother?
As I investigated my own roots in Western Christianity while remaining in the Orthodox Church, I puzzled over a question involving Our Lady and claims about the truth. If what the Orthodox taught about Rome’s deviation from the ancient faith was true, what was I to make of post-schism Marian apparitions in the West? Were they diabolic deceptions? How could Our Lady truly appear in a non-Orthodox milieu? The apparition that especially baffled me was Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1531.
Looking back, I can see now how praying the Rosary smoothed over my rough difficulties of understanding. I had been led by Providence to a weapon against the devil and ignorance as well as a tool for learning the Faith through devotion to Our Lady, as amply demonstrated by Pope Leo XIII and others.
Through a series of hammer blows around the time I turned fifty, God undermined my defenses and concluded His siege. I surrendered. And what better place to swear fealty to Him and His Vicar than at Holy Rosary Church in Tacoma, WA. Since I had been chrismated (confirmed) in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, canonically I was received into Catholicism as a Melkite. However, I petitioned to change ascription to the Latin Church since my mother and wife are Roman Catholics. I will never denigrate the Eastern expression of Faith but, like one of my heavenly patrons, St. Gregory the Great, I found the East a place to visit but not to permanently settle. (The saint was papal emissary in Constantinople for a period before returning to Rome and being elected to the papacy.)
Since my 2012 reception into Catholicism, I have tried in my own way to build bridges. Unfortunately, confusion in the Church has prompted some Catholics to flee to Orthodoxy as a perceived bastion of stability. However, faithful Catholics should not despair. Our Lady and Mother is hard at work. We need to recall the verse from Canticle of Canticles and used as an antiphon describing Mary: “Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem; terrible as an army set in array” (Cant. 6:3, DRV). In the Eastern Akathist hymn—increasingly known also to Roman Catholics—She is known as “Champion Leader.”
She is using Eastern saints as bridge builders. One example is the Russian Seraphim of Sarov, who is reputed to have prayed the Rosary and is considered by some to be also a Catholic saint. Another way is by the way of the Cross, in that faithful Eastern Catholics in war zones stand as examples of faithfulness to Her. In addition to the Melkites, Chaldeans, and Maronites of the Middle East, there is the inspiring story of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Although the practice has been criticized by some as a “Latinization,” Ukrainian Greek Catholics have for many years prayed the Rosary in various forms. The current war has led to Rosary prayer as a way to unite believers.
In addition to increasingly widespread use of the Rosary, devotion to Our Lady is also coming into play in iconography. Beyond traditional representations of the Theotokos, Eastern Catholics are beginning to embrace icons of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Fatima. Continuing interest in the Fatima apparitions and messages and the consecration of Russia to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart keep the East-West divide issue alive.
When Christ was dying on the Cross, His Mother was there. Our Lord entrusted Her to the care of the faithful St. John, who became a leader in the Church of Asia and the East, but Christ’s action was more than a geographic action. It was granting the whole world access to His loving Mother. Whether we pray with the Byzantine East, “most Holy Theotokos, save us,” or the Latin West, “pray for us, most holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ,” we are pleading with Our Mother to intervene on behalf of Her Children. And since She is the best of Mothers, She will do what is good and right.
Editor’s Note: This month Hozana invites us to flood Heaven with roses for our Mother. On the Rosario app, every decade of the Rosary prayed is a spiritual rose offered to Mary. The goal is to dedicate 3 million roses by the end of May!
Join the mission by praying just one decade a day. Your prayers will be part of a beautiful offering at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. Find out more here and be part of this worldwide bouquet of love.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
