One of the most exciting things I have found in spirituality is the vision of human beings that the gospel offers me. The recognition that each person, in some mysterious but real way, is Jesus is immensely challenging for me. And it also lets the heart soar in the face of each person—even in those inevitable moments when the other person is difficult or even painful to be with. If the other is Jesus, then a happy encounter is happier and a tough one is sweetened, and in both I am more able to use such reason as I have to be properly at the service of the other, including in those rare moments when strong words may be necessary.
This discovery has implications beyond my spiritual life. It is also fundamental for both mission and ecumenism. For mission, because if I have respect for Jesus I meet in others, I will approach them with respect, and I will be able both to listen and to offer my witness, in deeds or in words, in a way that reflects the beauty of the gospel. For ecumenism, because the same profound respect I have for those who are not explicit followers of Christ will shape my approach to members of other Christian communions.
Such an approach can be underpinned by a lovely theological vision, which lifts the veil a little on the mystery of the presence of Jesus in all of us.
The first thing that comes to mind in this context is Jesus’ own declaration in Matthew 25 regarding what is needed for eternal salvation. For our final examination, rather shockingly (if we listen closely), Jesus makes only one stipulation: whether we have loved. And he defines this in words translated in the NRSV as: ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:41).
To rub the point in, Jesus’ list of instances of where he is loved includes visiting people in prison. This is not just a suggestive image for those in the prison of sin, but means those genuinely likely to have fallen short of at least one of the Ten Commandments. It means those who, like the rest of us sadly, are sinners.
But Jesus died to save sinners. On the cross he drew near to every single human being in his or her worst self. Having become our brother through the incarnation, the Eternal Word of God entered into solidarity with us frail humans by bridging the final gap when he took our sinfulness upon himself. In the apostle Paul’s expression, the one who knew no sin was made to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Not only when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, when we live in grace, does Jesus bring us to share in him. But also through his work on the cross, when we are not living by grace and have closed ourselves from God, Jesus reaches out to us, draws near and brings us to share in him. Of course, only if we accept his invitation do we become his brothers and sisters as living members of the body of Christ. But even before we enter life, he has come to us. Thus in every part of us, those parts in grace and those in sin, there is his saving presence.
I find that to live in the reality of Jesus present in the whole of each person, a simple refrain helps me bear in mind the value God puts on human persons. This refrain keeps me in tune with Jesus who, by giving his life for us (and would have given it even for a single one who had strayed), valued each one of us as equal to himself: infinite in worth and infinitely deserving of love. I repeat to myself: ‘You are infinitely valuable; you are infinitely lovable.’ If one drop of the ocean of God’s love comes into me, this is a moment of mission and the beginning of the possibility of genuine unity, that unity which waters the divided world by ecumenism.
Callan Slipper (PhD, Lancaster University) is the Chair of Trustees for Churches Together in England. He also chairs the Society for Ecumenical Studies. He was ordained priest by the Church of England in 1994 and lives in London in a community of the Focolare Movement (one of the Charities and Networks in Association with CTE), where he strives to practise the Focolare’s spirituality of unity. He is a member of the Focolare Movement’s international study centre, the Abba School. Until 2022 he was National Ecumenical Officer for the Church of England’s Council for Christian Unity. Prior to that, he had been both a County and a Denominational Ecumenical Officer. He is the author of Five Steps to Living Christian Unity and Enriched by the Other: A Spiritual Guide to Receptive Ecumenism.