As you may suspect, I follow a couple of blogs, most of which are listed below and to the right under blogroll. Frequently what I will read is a posting that triggers some strong reactions from readers, some happening in a parish or diocese that ignites a firestorm of reactivity from the Catholic laity on the “right” and the “left.”
Why the bickering among us, people? Are we not all one in Christ? Why the factions and the intra-familial battles? Do we not share equally in the Body of Christ. Do we not drink from the same chalice of his Blood?
In others words……. if I may be so bold……. why the pride, the mark of sin?
It tires me. It is not of God.
Yes, our Lord Jesus himself said that the truth would bring division, but not the division of back-biting or name-calling or rash judgment of another. The division of which he spoke was the division he himself created by his invitation to believe and to follow him to the Father of us all. It was the division of Beatitudes. (Read Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount.)
Our lives will be judged not on our doctrinal purity, but on our willingness to see in each other the face of Jesus and to love him by loving each other. Our lives will be judged on the whether or not we have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, instructed the ignorant, buried the dead, given comfort to the grieving, etc.
The truth is ours. It has been given to us. It is Jesus. The Catholic Church is Jesus’ body and thus it teaches the truth which it hands on to us. If you wish to know the truth, be close to Jesus, listen to the bishops when they speak in matters of faith and morals, have an obedient heart. Read the Bible. Read the Catechism. These are the authoritative sources of truth.
Our task is not to bicker and divide. Our task is to evangelize the world by the example of our lives and the words of our mouths. We need to be rising to this task with all our vigor because there are many who would silence us (see last Wednesday’s first reading at Mass). We are to speak with one voice.
The world will not listen if we bicker with each other.
Finally, those of us who run blogs and other social media, especially deacons, priests and bishops, have a serious obligation to not incite such bickering and back-biting among the faithful.
God bless each of you today!
