CELEBRATE SUNDAY
WITH ST. MARY'S
TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Don't be divided from one another; strive to overcome the real enemy of sin.
TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Since our fall, humanity has greatly struggled with maintaining a healthy expression of living together through struggle and forgiveness, despite the fact that community is essential to our being. If to live with one other person for the rest of your life in a personal relationship is difficult enough, we might struggle to imagine how peace within humanity among different groups is ever possible. Even within the Church, we have not been able to maintain peace and unity despite Christ’s wishes: the Great Schism split the Church into East and West, the Protestant Reformation fractured the Church into tens of thousands of denominations, and the infighting within Catholicism today has led to both heresy and schism. Is living peacefully with each other a dream we should just give up?
READ THIS SUNDAY'S MESSAGE
The great drama of life is the tension between doing what we ought to and being led astray. In personal relationships, that tension is living a life of love versus living a life of selfishness. In world politics, that tension is seeking out the common good versus the quest for power. In each of these examples, we are motivated to live well and according to the way in which we were created to be by two things: love and struggle. Without sin, love is enough to motivate us to live well amongst each other. With sin, we have introduced struggle into our lives, but struggling with someone else allows us to build each other up so that we can instead focus on love. Two people who have a common obstacle grow in their relationship by overcoming that obstacle. Two nations who have a common enemy grow in their relationship by fighting that enemy. However, in our immaturity in this world, we see obstacles and enemies in one another; the true enemy and the true obstacle is sin - the one thing that prevents us from seeking out God and focusing on love. In personal relationships, our struggle should not be against each other but rather the things that are preventing us from growing. In world politics, the struggle should not be nation against nation, but rather those issues that cause suffering for the citizens of any nation. In the Church, the struggle should not be denomination against denomination or faction against faction, but rather the sin and selfishness that infiltrates even the holiest among us. There is a true enemy and a true obstacle to peace and unity, and it is not the “other”; rather it is very simply sin and selfishness. Should we all avoid sin and live selflessly, peace will flourish.
We as Catholics may see ourselves as different from Protestants or Orthodox, but we have a common love for Christ and an obedience to his Word. That is enough to build a truly unified Christian Church, one that is motivated by love and not by a power struggle. We as Christians may see ourselves different from pagans or atheists, but we have a common human telos that motivates us in all things, even if we may not recognize it. If someone is struggling, we can join them in solidarity through that struggle. By doing so, we can open the eyes of someone distracted by the things of this world so that they may recognize love as the great motivator. When Christ says “whoever is not against us is for us,” he is referring to those who do not yet have the fullness of truth. The Protestant may not have the authority of the Church, but they have the words of Christ. The atheist may not have Christ, but they have a human nature that was created to love and for love. We are not each other’s enemies; rather, we are common soldiers in the fight against our fallen nature. Let’s get past the struggle and focus on the only thing that will enable peace and unity in this world: God’s love for His creation, and our love for our Creator.
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