The Devil Divides

Homily for Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

The world is filled with division. Everywhere we look, it seems that society is fiercely divided into different camps. So much of our conversation is reduced to, “Are you on my side, or their side?” Sadly, even among members of God’s holy church, divisions can cause deep rifts.

In his Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul reminds us that this is not the way Christians are to think. “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Divisions are wounds in the body of Christ. Our Holy Father Francis has said, “Divisions are a handy weapon that the devil uses to destroy the church from within.” It is interesting to note that the Greek word “diabolos,” which is the origin of our English word “devil,” means “to divide.”

We have received a great gift in our baptism. Through this sacrament of initiation, we are washed clean of original sin and transformed into children of God and temples of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who unites us with God and with one another. It is the task of every baptized person to foster unity within the church and in our world. In our baptismal promises, we promised to reject the works of the devil, the minister of division.

As we continue to worship God through this celebration of the Eucharist, let us remember that the very word we use to describe this sacrament is “communion,” which literally means “with unity.” As we are united with Christ through our reception of the Eucharist, we are also united with one another. There is no room for division within the Christian lifestyle.