It was the ongoing “Christian genocide” that finally brought about the meeting after twenty years of discussions. Pope Francis and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill will be meeting next Friday in the neutral location of Cuba, while the patriarch is there on an official visit and Francis is on his way to Mexico.

The threats to our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East and elsewhere are so bad that the two “had to meet,” the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s department for external relations told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. (For more details on the meeting, see the AP report and my article on this “Historic Move of the Holy Spirit.”)

Its historic significance is extraordinary. The joint press release issued on February 5th notes “This meeting of the Primates of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, after a long preparation, will be the first in history and will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches.” The Catholic and Orthodox Churches have been officially divided for almost 1,000 years, since what is called the “great schism” of 1054. There is nothing great about any schism and there is plenty of blame to go around for this one.

In addition to discussing the growing persecution of Christians around the globe, it is reported that the two intend to sign a joint document indicating collaboration and perhaps charting a path forward in healing the division between these two Christian churches.

There is a growing persecution directed against faithful Christians across the confessional spectrum and it is part of what I believe to be a new missionary age. It is most clearly evident in the barbaric actions of the evil jihadists who call themselves the Islamic State. In the second century, the Church Father Tertullian proclaimed that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

The bloody pogrom unleashed by ISIS and their allies against faithful Christians is spreading. The European Parliament has just declared that ISIS killing of Christians and other religious minorities is genocide. The victims are our brothers and sisters. Secularist, anti-Christian and intolerant regimes elsewhere around the globe are also threatening faithful Christians. These victims too are our brothers and sisters. We are joined to them in the bond of baptism and their blood cries out for our response.

A kick in the devil’s gut

This historic meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Krill is a kick in the gut of the devil, who has encouraged the divisions among Christians precisely because they have weakened the Body of Christ. It has the potential of unleashing an extraordinary outpouring of grace from our One Savior, Jesus Christ, who longs for our full communion and missionary collaboration in this age. Jesus prayed that we would all be one, so that the world would believe that He was indeed sent from the Father as the Savior for all men and women (John 17:21). In an age in desperate need of the Gospel we proclaim, our divisions impede our common mission.

“Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to fall afresh on these two Christian leaders.”

Before he was made head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill was responsible for his church’s dialogue with the Catholic Church. As Patriarch, he has continued that dialogue. He has a genuine respect for the Catholic Church and sees the two as sister churches. (Here’s a theological statement explaining how the Catholic Church uses the term.) That is also the term used in Catholic theology.

Patriarch Kirill has faced opposition within the Orthodox Church for his ongoing dialogue with the Catholic Church. However, he has showed no sign of retreat, particularly in joint efforts aimed at stemming the growing spread of the culture of death and the sordid fruit of moral relativism. On the first anniversary of Francis’s becoming pope, he wrote: “The endeavors of Your Holiness to make the presence of the Gospel ideals in the life of modern society more distinct have already yielded good fruits.” And then:

Your care for the suffering and the destitute reminds people about the duty of brotherly love and about the necessity to show, by good deeds, solidarity with the needy. … I am pleased to note the high level of mutual understanding and the desire of both sides to strengthen the Orthodox-Catholic cooperation in order to uphold Christian spiritual and moral values in the modern world, defend the oppressed, and serve our neighbors.

Like his predecessors St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, has made healing the division between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity one of his highest priorities. He has met with the Patriarch of Constantinople, the head of Orthodoxy in the world. Back in May 2014 he sent a personal message to Kirill asking to meet.

Pope Benedict XVI sent a gift to the Patriarch when he was installed in office, a chalice with which he now celebrates the Divine Liturgy. It was a symbol that we are all redeemed by the blood of the One Savior, Jesus Christ. He expressed his hope in these words, “It is my earnest hope that we will continue to cooperate in finding ways to foster and strengthen communion in the body of Christ in fidelity to our savior’s prayer that all may be one so that the world may believe.”

Pray fervently, break down the walls

The joint release invited “all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits.” I urge all Christians, no matter which confession or community they belong to, to heed his request. Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to fall afresh on these two Christian leaders.

We need to rediscover one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, who can come to the aide of our brothers and sisters now being systematically murdered in the Middle East and in other places as well. That’ll be a punch in the gut for the devil.

Recall Paul’s words of warning: “We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The Devil is a liar, a thief and a divider (see, for example, John 10:10). Christ is a unifier, a healer, a reconciler. As Paul also said: “He [Jesus] is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.”

Christians across the confessional spectrum should fervently pray that this historic meeting helps break down the ancient walls of hostility between Christians. Our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere remind us, as they shed their blood, how much they need us to be one in Christ.