Sermonwriter: Some in Rome Share a Motto with the East

Traditional Roman Catholics recognize the following as "their" motto, ...but it is also shared with Orthodox Christians:

"We are what you once were.
We believe what you once believed.
We worship as you once worshipped.
If you were right then, we are right now.
If we are wrong now, you were wrong then."

The above quote was recently made known to me by my Traditional Roman Catholic brother, Mike.

Good morning Roman Brethren. I want to mention a simple thing here now about unity between Western Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. As a former Roman Catholic I have a heart to reach out to faithful Roman Catholics, and even though my learning is lacking to the extreme, in comparison to most, this has not convinced me to be silent about the little I do know.

That said, (sincerely), I perceive that an underlying sentiment within Roman Catholics is that there is no need to make the reconciliation between E and W too complicated; and of course I would agree. However, I believe there is a certain position that Roman Catholics tend to take which brings them to the false conclusion that the Eastern Orthodox are complicating things unecessarily; and that is, their false assumption that the East is exactly the same as the West, and only complicate matters with semantics. This of course leads them to believe that they already understand the East, and any effort to further understand the East would be redundant. Though I am no expert on either the E or the W, having been born and raised in the West I have predominantly thought with a Western mind my entire life. Most in the West do not even consider this difference in thinking as significant, so it is no wonder there is no rush to understand the East. So no, it is not complicated, it is as plain as making the obvious significant to the Western brethren.

John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen (1995), -> “wished to reaffirm, so that the universal Church would treasure the rich witness, wisdom and spirituality of the Christian East and would look back with nostalgia to the first Christian millennium, WHEN THE CHURCH LIVED IN UNITY". (Emphasis mine) http://rumkatkilise.org/byzpope2.htm

So the uncomplicated simplicity is, that we were once ONE BODY. What changed? Every scholar, whether E or W knows what changed. It was the mindset of the West. This is significant, and this is simple. This is not complicated. The East has remained constant and the West has not. Whether this is “right” or not, must be the uncomplicated question every faithful Christian must answer. It is the East that has remained “Orthodox”; it is the West that has transformed into “Heterodox”. The East has preserved the original Apostolic establishment of the Church which Rome at one time, and for centuries, had helped preserve as well.

From this simple premise I present to you this morning, it is plain to see that it is the West that must justify its diversion to something that is not consistent with its own heritage and the faith of its own Fathers…and now, with the faith of its Eastern relatives. If 5 walk in agreement for centuries on the same road, and then one decides to leave the other 4 to walk his own road, the responsibility and the accountability falls on the one who veered, not on the 4 who continue the course.