Homily for Tuesday, 25 February 2014– Ferial

Tuesday of the 7th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: James 4:1-10; Psalm 55:7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23; Mark 9:30-37

“Where do the conflicts among [us] come from?” Our reading today from the Letter of James points to a tendency beginning very early in Christian communities to focus on petty disputes that divide instead of on the “big picture” of our faith; on what unites us.

I do not wish to be gloomy‒ there is much good in our Church and in our world; for this we thank God‒ but could not the same question James asks be applied to many Christians and to our world today?

If we look to Syria, to Ukraine, to Venezuela, or to other points of conflict and violence in our world, we see this conflict caused by corruption; ideological polarization; extremism; greed; revenge; assertion of power against the good of the people of these regions, and so forth.

More locally, in our Church community of Rochester, in our parish, and in our households, the causes of conflict are not as flagrant, I hope, as in nations at war. Especially with a new bishop or in as young a parish as St. Kateri, hopeful anticipation of differences in leadership style or changes in our experience as worshipping faithful is encouraged. However, gossip that stifles good and necessary change that we pray is guided by the Holy Spirit; conflict motivated by pride and inability to forgive; fighting over who among us are “the greatest”; inability to see the “big picture” of our faith that unites us as one Church, that we are all redeemed by Christ’s death and resurrection, is divisive and sinful.

I am confident that I do not direct these harsh words toward anyone among us here. I am confident that we generally work to unite our community, our Church, and our households and not to divide them. And yet these ills have divided even the strongest of disciples, as we hear in today’s Gospel reading. If there have been times when we have created divisions among ourselves through petty disputes that distract from the “big picture” of our faith, our redemption by Christ’s death and resurrection; if we have ever thought of ourselves as “the greatest” among disciples instead of acting with the humility of a true disciple of Jesus Christ; if we have ever unquestioningly assumed that our way was right, or been angered when another has questioned our ways for good reason, let us ask for God’s forgiveness through this gift of our Eucharist.

With this spirit of repentance and our constant recommitment to depend on God as humble disciples of Christ, we will no longer ask “What divides us” or “Where do conflicts among [us] come from” but “What unites us”? And we will know the answer to our question: We are redeemed by Christ’s death and resurrection. We live our redemption with faith and hope, as one community; one Church; one world. This is what unites us. This is the “big picture” of our Christian faith.