Sint unum

 The September issue of As a Rule focuses on the idea of “fraternal community” with Rule of Life No. 8 as a starting point for the reflections. The final line of that passage: “As members of Christ, faithful to His pressing invitation Sint unum, they fraternally bear one another’s burdens in one same common life.”

Reflecting on that, Fr. John Czyzynski, SCJ (upper right), writes that “To me Jesus’ Sint Unum is so much more than an ‘invitation.’  These words are part of Jesus’ earnest prayer to His Father, that Abba would help His followers be one.  And to His disciples they express Jesus’ final loving command and desperate appeal that they be united.  If I might paraphrase what Jesus said, it would be this: ‘if you remember anything that I have said to you, for God’s sake, remember this:  be one, love one another.  You are all brothers.  Don’t ever forget that.’  And then the words of the Constitution add to that heartfelt plea of Jesus, namely, that we carry one another’s burdens, that we carry one another.”

Fr. Jean Claude Mbassi, SCJ, notes that “A community is more than just a work group. To build a community means to really welcome a brother, giving him time, attention, affection, working with him actively and as an equal according to the role and function that each person has within the community. Such aspects can be an appropriate means of achieving Sint Unum and of becoming ‘prophets of love’.”

Click here to read their full reflections in this month’s issue of As a Rule.