#unanimity

I wasn't completely wedded to the theory, but my idea boiled down to that. Chaisee and Dooshim (and presumably the other zongdus) had negotiated a secret pact amongst themselves to declare independence for the shang cities as a fifth nation. With their complete control of all international trade they've got more wealth than anybody except the central national governments, and the book was very emphatic on the power that money has. After all, the Platinum Affair was what had started this entire crisis.

Working together the shangs may have even outmassed the fortunes of the various world leaders, provided they all committed. Hence, "Unanimity". If they played the four nations off against one another that may have been enough to carve out their own independent realm.

As the story progressed and Yangchen continued to find absolutely nothing -- no shipments of weapons or stockpiles of resources or vaults full of cash -- I leaned more heavily into the theory. Because if I was right it wasn't a single thing that she was looking for, it was an agreement.

I'd say I was about 70% certain that I had it pegged correctly.

Abdulla Rashim - Unanimity

Northern Electronics

Eph 4:7-16; Ps 121; Lk 13:1-9

preached at the weekly Conventual Mass

Each of us have been called here by God’s grace. For it is Christ who has chosen us – we did not choose him. So, likewise, it is Christ who has chosen that we should be part of this community at this time – we are here by his grace, gathered as Dominican brothers into this priory, by his grace and providence.

So, as the 8th-century hymn, Ubi caritas says: “Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor”, the love of Christ has gathered us into one. Indeed, it is both the love of Christ, that is to say, his Holy Spirit, who is gathering us together and uniting us as one, and it is also the Spirit-filled love that each of us has for Christ and his holy Church, that unites us in “one heart and mind”. Hence the Constitutions of the Order states that “the unanimity of our life has its roots in the love of God” and “communion among us also is established and made firm in the Holy Spirit.” (cf LCO 2)

But unanimity is not uniformity. People who look at us from outside often make this mistake because they see that we wear the same habit – a kind of uniform – and we follow a set schedule, and we commit ourselves to follow the same Rule, and so people think that Dominicans are all one entity, all the same, all uniform. The same mistake is sometimes made of Catholics in general.

Rather, the theology articulated by St Paul, and expressed so well in St Thomas’s appropriation of Aristotle’s virtue ethics tells us that God’s call and God’s grace is actuated and particularised in each of us as individuals. And the challenge is put before us, as brothers, to recognise the gifts we have to offer, and to recognise the particular gifts and contribution that the other makes. For nobody is superfluous or unnecessary or a burden. Rather, each has been chosen and called by Christ to be here at this time, and together we form one body in Christ. As St Paul says: “If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function.” (Eph 4:15-16)

Hence we know that God’s grace is at work in each of us to bring to perfection the gifts and talents he has given each of us, but always at the service of the one Church; directed towards the goal and mission of this priory; contributing to the unanimity of this community into which we have been placed at this time. Following the image employed in today’s Gospel, we have each been planted here, in the Lord’s vineyard at Haverstock Hill, and the Lord calls us to be fruitful. He wants us, then, to use those gifts and talents that his Holy Spirit has given us so as to advance the Gospel in this locality, but also, more importantly, so that each of us as individual friars preachers might advance in friendship with God and one another; might grow in charity and justice together; might be sanctified during our time here. Thus St Paul says: let the “saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.” (Eph 4:12)

As a Dominican community, therefore, and as ministers of the Gospel in this place, let us use our various and diverse but considerable and substantial gifts and talents to build up the body of Christ in St Dominic’s; to build up the body of Christ in our community until, as St Paul says, “the body grows until it has built itself up, in love.” (Eph 4:16).

To make us even more fruitful, the man in the Gospel says concerning the fig tree: “Give me time to dig round it and manure it”. Sometimes we have built up defences about ourselves, around our wounded hearts, or around a lifestyle and routine that have created for our own comfort and convenience. But these hinder our fruitfulness. Therefore, the Lord (sometimes working through our brethren) will, if we let him, dig around us, and gently bring down those defences. And sometimes, we will have to put up with a lot of… manure. There will be situations and difficulties and encounters and challenges and the need for reforms which, at the time, will feel awful and undesirable but with the grace of the Risen Lord these can transform our character, increase our virtue, and so make us fruitful Christians, make us truly brothers who are open to each other, and thus to the people whom we serve in this place. As Pope Francis says in Fratelli Tutti: “We need to communicate with each other, to discover the gifts of each person, to promote that which unites us, and to regard our differences as an opportunity to grow in mutual respect.” (134)