In this Octave for Christian Unity, Friar Enrique Eguiarte invites us to look inward: Saint Augustine teaches that there can be no authentic communion without inner unification healed by grace.
Inner unity and Christian unity: Saint Augustine and the conversion of the heart
For Saint Augustine, the human being must recognize that within himself he is broken and fractured by sin. Every human being has an inner fracture and it is necessary to first begin to build unity in his own heart so that once his own being is unified by the action of grace and directed towards God, he can begin to build unity with those around him. Unity will continue to be a utopia if each believer, if each human being does not first begin a work of personal inner unification, recognizing his own fractures and the divisions that exist within him, and allowing the healing and unifying force of the grace of God to act within him, so that once his desires, his affections are unified and all directed towards God, he can be a factor of unification and unity in the Church. Unity therefore requires individual and collective work. I unify myself within so that I can build unity in the community of the Church. Unity is not built with fractured and broken pieces. Unity is built, with the help of the grace of God with pieces, with people, who have unified themselves within and who can therefore build unity in the Church, because they themselves live internally integrated. It is necessary to work on unity from the heart in order to later project it to the Church.
