Today’s readings may be found here.
Listen to this homily here.
This world is divided. We know this. We see it every day in the news. Look at the political situation right now in Washington. There is also war, persecution, inhuman atrocities that go on in this world every day. This world is divided.
But, St. Paul urges us today to have no divisions among us, that we be united in the same mind and the same purpose. That may seem impossible, but it is the desire of St. Paul and Jesus Christ for us. Maybe we can’t heal the world of division, but can we heal our families, our friends, our neighbors of it? Do we need to stand idly by and say that’s just the way it is?
The key to overcoming division is to remember that we are baptized. And as we are baptized, we are made one with the Body of Christ. No matter what, we are one Church and one organism. We need to care for others the way we care for our very own selves.
What leads us away from thinking this way is simply our pride. We want to believe what we want to believe, and nobody is going to tell us different. We put up walls that divide. We surround ourselves only with the like-minded. The only remedy to that pride is to become meek and humble, to become obedient to the Father in heaven in all ways.
So let us today pray for the following: first, humility in our own hearts; second, healing in our families; third, an end to division in our country; and fourth, an end to hatred and violence in this world. Amen.
