A House divided against itself cannot stand

        Homily:Monday, 3^rdWeek in Ordinary Time 2019                               

       Gospel:Mark 3: 22-30–A house divided against itself cannot    
       stand

            It is the threat to Christian unity that Jesus is speaking about in  today’s Gospel.  He said, “if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”  And this would certainly seem to apply to what is going on in our country and our church today.

         We are a nation divided on so many issues.  The loss of respect for all human life is one of the more grievous threats to the spiritual life of our country.  The slow and deliberate effort to divide the members of various faiths and religions, followed by legislation and legal action to erase any semblance of God from our country has put us on a path to spiritual and moral destruction. It didn’t happen overnight. The devil has been working slowly, methodically, and deceptively to change the minds and hearts of people. It has been the execution of a diabolical plan to separate people from God.  This was the case when Jesus walked the earth and it is the case today.  By misinterpreting, and misrepresenting the words of Sacred Scripture and having total disregard for Sacred Tradition, those in power and those seeking power have led people astray.   They have determined that they know the mind and heart of God, and have crafted a message disguised as one of compassion when in reality it is self-serving.  Rather than showing care for people, they have devalued all human life.  Additionally, the attack on our Church is a spiritual attack as well. One in which the evil one has targeted those he fears the most, the clergy.  By ramping up the temptations to give in to physical and emotional desires, and then confusing the minds of our Church leaders such that the fail to fulfill their role as shepherds, the plan to bring down the church is clear.  Now don’t get me wrong, choices were made due to the free will given to those who made errant choices are accountable.  But make no mistake, the devil is attacking those things that bind us together.  God’s word is being diluted, devalued, with the goal of making it irrelevant.  An attack on our priests is an attack on the Eucharist.  The more priests and Bishops he can take out, the less available the Eucharist is to the faithful and it is the Eucharist which unites us as Catholic Christians.  

         This why it is so important that we do not lose faith, that we do not lose hope. We must pray harder, and we must read and reflect on the Scriptures.  And finally we must receive and protect the Eucharist. 

         We are in a spiritual war and we must do everything we can to heal the divide in our church and in our country.  Otherwise our country will fall, and our church will suffer greatly before the final victory promised by Our Lord.