Unity

...and individually we are members one of another.

 - From Romans 12

The ideas of teamwork, unity, of putting others ahead of yourself: I have come to believe that they are impossible to see in practice, in our present age.

You will not even see good teamwork, or unity, or selflessness, in the Church.

Oh sure, there are hints of the practice of these high principles, here and there. A high-performance team that soon breaks up from its own internal conflict, or that is broken up by short-sighted management; A church that grows like wildfire as everyone is all working as though from the same script, but that is stalled ultimately by some mini scandal or otherwise dissatisfied group of parishioners.

We have seen excellence in action. Almost everybody knows what it's like to be in a "zone" with your teammates, family members, or Church body.

But the point is, it doesn't last long. Something brings it to an end, or to a permanent plateau.

I simply don't think we have it in us. Because we love being partisan, so much.

Partisanship is a system of teamwork that aligns people with others that will embrace their attitudes and ways that are dysfunctional in the greater society. Real teamwork, real unity, and real selflessness, is going to hurt a little bit.

The current crisis in western culture, for instance, can only be reversed if extreme partisans begin to own their own contributions to the problem:

This does NOT mean "I am at fault for not speaking out when the haters were getting organized."

It DOES mean "I am at fault for pushing the haters away, and marginalizing them, before they became haters. I was hateful, too."

Yes . . . that would be more like it.

If the Church had true unity, that refused to let politics separate members from one another, then it would serve as a great catalyst in society, to bring healing to so many warring factions. The Church divided feeds hate. The Church unified destroys it.