Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes it feels like we American Catholics are more scattered than gathered, to use the words from today’s Gospel (Luke 11:15-26). US Catholics are scattered on a variety of things, especially relating to American politics: economy, immigration laws, abortion. These are all also key aspects of our faith and therefore important topics for discussion: ultimately the point of such discussion is to try to understand our faith better and to help each other live better lives. Yet we Catholics seem sometimes to be more governed by how other non-Catholics discuss and describe the debates, rather than being influenced by our own Christian convictions. It feels like we, as Catholics, can’t have discussions, in person or online, without someone accusing someone else of “not being a REAL Catholic” because they’re not focused enough on just wages or immigration issues on the one hand, and abortion or embryonic stem cell research on the other.
Today’s scriptures emphasize the need for unity in the Body of Christ in the face of just such a discussion. The setting of today’s first reading (Galatians 3:7-14) is much like that of our own day for the fact that a heated argument is occurring. Christians – good, faithful Christians – wonder who is being most faithful to the gospel. Is it the Jewish Christians who get circumcised because after all, God commanded Abraham and his followers to do so, or the Greek Christians whom Paul describes as having once been chained to pagan idols (see verse 4:8) and who are not necessarily in a position to speak about what is good? Paul’s answer is to say first, to the Jewish Christians, that overemphasis and too much hope in the physical change of circumcision is an idol too. We must be free to follow Christ and not make idols of our bodies, or the Law or anything else that impedes our primary call. Second, Paul is beginning to suggest in this passage that the distinction between circumcised and uncircumcised is a false one. The true children of Abraham are the ones with faith in Christ, regardless of whether they have been circumcised, or were once worshipping pagan idols. The focus on circumcision is a red herring, and he will emphasize this more and more as we continue to read through this letter.
Today’s gospel is much more emphatic about unity. Bystanders who see Jesus curing a demon suggest he is alternately the devil or they ask him for further signs. As usual, Jesus sidesteps both groups by refusing to give either group a direct answer. Rather he asks them to consider what it is that they see and experience. If Jesus is from the devil, yet driving out devils, then they will see and experience chaos. If they have faith that Jesus is doing these miracles in the name of God, then they will see and experience the fullness of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus’ most stern words admonish us: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather, scatters.” Do we stand with Jesus and his disciples in unity? Or do we scatter ourselves?
It strikes me that in this world where there is clearly turmoil and disagreement, one of the best witnesses we can give to our belief in Jesus Christ is that we Catholics can show others how to have discussions and disagreements and still see each other as members of Christ’s body. Let us reflect today on ways that we, personally, can do better in seeking unity, and let us join in with Jesus’ prayer that we “be one” in him.
- Jana M. Bennett