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Some people like to talk about a crisis in the Church. But when we speak of the Church, we should take care to remember that the Catholic Church is universal. There are places in the world where the Church is growing fast; in other places, there is a lack of priests. We should love the Church as our Mother.
In many places where the Church is growing fastest, the faithful experience life’s hardships, material poverty, and even bloody persecution for faith in Christ. These uneasy, challenging, and dangerous conditions not only do not hinder but, paradoxically, seem to help many Christian communities to grow.
Christians under these circumstances are often authentic, determined, and bound together by fraternal bonds of love. This creates a viable space for faith — a spiritual home where everyone is at home, in unity with the others, and with a sense of belonging to Christ. This undoubtedly gives strength, and in practice manifests what Jesus asked in prayer for his disciples and for those who would come after them: that they may be one, and that they may love one another.
Unity attracts
We can learn a valuable lesson from the experience of healthy communities in the Church.
What attracts people to the Church in the first place is not flashy pastoral ideas or evangelization campaigns — undoubtedly important and necessary — but the authentic unity and love among Christians. This gives credence to the message of the Good News.
Conversely, what speaks poorly of the Church and makes it inauthentic, suspicious, and even ridiculous or dangerous in people’s eyes, are divisions, hostility, mutual dislike, and even hatred that Christians have for each other.
A house divided against itself cannot stand
When Christians fail to love one another, we see in the background the devious work of Satan, the spirit of division and confusion. It is the devil’s intention and strategy to make God’s house, which we are building, as divided as possible.
Moreover, this is clear from the words of Jesus himself. Refuting the irrational accusation of the angry Pharisees that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub — the ruler of evil spirits — Our Lord replied: “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:25).
The evangelist Mark uses the Greek word μερίζω (meridzo) in this passage, which means “to divide, separate, dismember.” Thus, he points to such an inclination that causes a split, a dismemberment of some organism.
Division repels
This image strongly appeals to our heart if we recall the comparison of the Church to the body of Christ, which St. Paul draws in his first letter to the Corinthians. Understood in this way, the Church lives thanks to its unity and the strong, healthy relationships that prevail among its members. This makes it a clear sign of salvation and God’s love offered in Christ to each of us.
A divided and quarreling Church, by contrast, is a picture of a torn and disjointed body, which exudes decay rather than health. Instead of attracting people, it repels them; they don’t find in it a cure for their wounds, and in general they prefer to stay away from it.
This is an important lesson for us. Before we engage with fervor in intra-Catholic wars, disputes, and debates, or pass judgment, we should ask ourselves whose tool we are: God’s, or the devil’s?
Does our attitude serve to build up or rather tear down? What image of the Church are we shaping in the eyes of those who watch us from the sidelines?
Are we fostering unity among the children of Holy Mother Church, even if we don’t agree in everything with every brother and sister?
Perhaps such an examination of conscience should be the first step in the search for a remedy before talk of the Church’s crises.
And today we celebrate...