Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
In 1968, a third grade teacher in a small Iowa town named Jane Elliot conducted a simple classroom exercise in an effort to help her students understand what discrimination felt like. She separated her class into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. On the first day, the brown-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the blue-eyed students. Elliot told the brown-eyed students that they were not to play with the blue-eyed students. At recess they were not to use the jungle gym or the swings. They would not be allowed to have seconds at lunch. And instead of drinking straight from the water fountain, they would have to use paper cups. And on the second day of the experiment, Elliot switched the roles. In both cases, the classroom of students swiftly became divided. The “better” children were encouraged to feel superior and given extra incentives while the deprived group were often degraded, blamed for things, or had benefits taken away from them. By the afternoon, the superior children started to taunt and belittle their classmates. Division was inserted into the group and the classroom culture began to crumble.
In today’s gospel, Jesus proclaims, “Every Kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house” (Lk 11:17). Many of us have experienced and can tell very personal stories about division within our families, friendships, organizations, and communities that have left us broken and scarred. In the United States, never is division more poignant than during an election year. After watching football on TV with my 7-year-old the other day and seeing numerous political commercials, he proceeded to observe that (according to the messaging) neither of our candidates running for U.S. Senate cares about Ohio. In the church, there are numerous divisions and disagreements, some more prevalent than others. For example, the division does not come simply from a difference between those who prefer to celebrate mass in Latin versus English; rather, deep division begins to truly exist in the absence of compassion and understanding, when one side looks at the other as less authentically Catholic because of their preference.
Yet, we believe in a God of unity and justice. As we hear in the first reading, Christ Jesus ransomed us from the chains of sin “so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3:14). Jesus is not judged justly in the gospel, but he swiftly points out the hypocrisy of their arguments and invites us to join the work of justice, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Lk 11:23). Jesus unites all of us through His body and blood. When we attempt to forge our own path and take on pride, self-centeredness, hatred, spite, we find ourselves lonely and lost. A group that is divided and infected with infighting does indeed crumble and fail. However, we also know that a unified group is hard to defeat. With the Holy Spirit as our protector and our guide, if we stick together, we can move beyond our shortcomings, and be unified in our devotion and service to God and one another. Jesus is always with us. Yes, we may battle with our own demons, but we are never alone in this journey. If our good and loving God is for us, who can be against?
“Majesty and glory are his work,
And his justice endures forever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
Gracious and merciful is the LORD.” (Ps 111:3-4)
Peace,
Brandon Meyer