Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A February 23, 2020
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
The devil is real, you know. As are the fallen angels who serve him. When I talk about demons, though, most people start thinking about ghosts. They fear shadows and strange sounds. That stuff does happen, but it’s actually pretty rare. It’s also not that big a deal. Scare tactics and not much more. Other think of possession. That is real. Superstition, Ouija boards, fortune telling, witchcraft. These things are much bigger problems – don’t dabble in them. But possession is still pretty rare. Most priests go their whole life without encountering it.
No, as a priest, I am not really worried about ghosts, scary noises, or even possessions. There is something the devil and his demons are much better at; Something they use much more effectively because they use it so consistently: division. The roots of the word for devil means divider.
That’s what St. Paul is worried about in our second reading. His letter to the Corinthians is addressing the factions that have sprung up in the Church. They are breaking themselves into groups based on which Apostle they like most. Some claim to follow Peter, others follow a guy named Apollos and others follow Paul. Paul, however, tells them they ought to be united in Christ. The Church on earth is God’s dwelling place and it must not be broken up.
When he says “you are the temple of God,” he is using the plural form of the word. The Catholic Church is not just a random collection of believers or even of parishes. It is the body of Christ and the dwelling place of God on earth. Our sacred buildings are important, but they are just signs, symbols of the real Church.
When Catholics are united in truth and love, they give witness to God’s promise to always be with us. When Catholics are united, people are converted, the poor are cared for, and the world has to come face to face with God whether they like it or not. Satan hates that and tries to lead us astray. If he can’t get us to deny Christ outright, he’ll make us weaker with distraction and division. If every parish and every diocese gets too focused on their own preferences it’s harder for the world to see what the real truth is… to see who the real truth is.
Do we do this? “I don’t like Fr. Johhny… I go to Fr. Bobby over there.” Is the Eucharist any less real when Fr. Bobby or Johnny celebrates it? “I don’t follow Pope Benedict, I’m a Pope Francis guy.” Did Francis die on the Cross? Did Benedict Rise from the dead? Fr. Johnny or Bobby, Pope Benedict, Francis, John Paul II – they are ministers of Christ. You don’t belong to their groups, they belong to you as servants. You belong to Christ.
Or perhaps we emphasize our own gifts or culture or history to the exclusion of the whole Church? Later in the letter, Paul talks about competition between people with different talents and conflicts between Jews and Greeks. Diversity in the Church can be a good thing, but that diversity should not be division! Great teachers should not look down on manual laborers and pastors should not look down on their flock. Jews and Greeks are different, but they are one, united in Christ.
I’m an Asian Catholic, I’m white Catholic, I’m a black Catholic, I’m a charismatic Catholic, I’m a traditionalist Catholic. No. We are Catholic. Many gifts, many histories, but one destiny, one mission, one Church. Paul warns us, “if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.” By dividing ourselves, but putting our loyalty to a person, place, or race over our loyalty to Christ and his Church, we are destroying the temple.
That’s what the devil wants. And he is very clever. It can be hard to avoid his trap. Even when we try to avoid division, we can go to the opposite extreme of watering down the truth. “For the sake of unity, let’s not talk about tough teachings.” That the “the wisdom of this world” that “is foolishness in the eyes of God.”
The wisdom of God is that only the truth brings real unity. Many people rejected Jesus. They divided themselves from him when he taught difficult truths about marriage, poverty, and forgiveness. Throughout history, people divided themselves from the Church when she upheld the truth about the sacraments or morality or final judgment. So the devil, tricky as he is, tries make us feel guilty for “creating division” when we stand our ground. Do not be fooled. Our unity can only come from Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. Whether that truth is a tough doctrine or an ugly reality. We cannot hide the truth to be united. That is worldly wisdom and the scandals are one powerful example of how hiding the truth only makes it worse later.
But this is where the wisdom of God overcomes even that division. We proclaim the truth – with love! – and some reject it. They hate us for it. They become our enemies. The wisdom of the world says to hate your enemies. But not the wisdom of God. We love even our enemies. And by love, Christ doesn’t mean warm feelings. He doesn’t mean liking the person or hanging out with that person. He means love defined as “to will the good of another,” which means working towards what is best for that person, even when they aren’t. So while the world rejects Christ and us, we continue to love them in return, to work for their salvation, to suffer for them. To love our enemies points us toward an even greater unity than pretending there are no problems.
The devil is real. His strategy is to divide and conquer. Our defense is unity. Unity of faith and truth in the Church. Unity that forgives. Unity beyond boundaries of parish, color, class, and country. Unity deeper than political correctness or polite avoidance. And above all else, the unity of love. Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And our Father is perfect in love. Love of God, Love of neighbor. Love so great that it extends to our enemies. Love that unites us even to those who hate and rejects us. This is the wisdom of God, that even when the hatred of the world kills us because of our unity with Christ, we are not defeated. Even death cannot divide us from him and from each other.
The devil is real and he is out to destroy us. But he only fits in the spaces that divide us. Let truth and love fill that space so that you, I, and the whole Church, have nothing to fear.
Love the Homily.