Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
[Hebrews 9: 15, 24-28 and Mark 3:22-30]If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand......[Mark]
These words from the Gospel of Mark are enshrined in our nation's civil history because they were quoted by Abraham Lincoln in his famous "House Divided" speech on the subject of slavery. He predicted that the United States could not survive as a nation half slave and half free. The terrible trauma of the War Between the States had to occur before the institution of slavery could be abolished. Jesus' words were spoken in an effort to show that his power over demons could not be attributed to demonic sources since it made no sense for Satan to cast out Satan! His words seemed to have no impact on those whose hearts were turned against him, and it took the terrible suffering of the cross and his triumphant resurrection to get the message across to many of them.
We in America have great faith in our civil constitution and the institutions of government that are established in accord with that constitution. At the same time, we show our concern that those institutions may be used to harm the very people who have set them up, and so we have a "Bill of Rights" that enshrines protections for all citizens. Yet, even those "rights" are denied to the innocent unborn child, who is as much a citizen as the person who walks on the streets. One wonders if our nation can survive this denial and live with the division between those who consider abortion a "right" and those who consider it a fundamental denial of all human rights. This division does not concern abortion alone but all human life and the use of violence to end that life: war, capital punishment - any form of legally sanctioned violence!
A "divided house" may apply to our own Church. Some fundamental doctrinal understandings of the gospel have produced terrible violence throughout history. It is only by virtue of God's providence that we have survived great schisms and other violent upheavals to be present to the world of today. Divisions over the role of women in the Church and the exercise of the vital role of the papacy in maintaining the unity of faith continue to threaten the future of Jesus' message! The sex abuse crisis has unearthed some fundamental questions about the way in which we live as Church!
Division and diversity are not the same thing. Nor are unity and uniformity. I pray the Spirit will enable us to maintain diversity without division, and unity without uniformity so that we may maintain the integrity of the gospel and be a means of God's grace! AMEN
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