if a house is divided

Monday, January 24, 2011
St. Francis de Sales, Bishop, Doctor of the Church (Memorial)

First Reading: Psalm: Gospel:

Hebrews 9:15, 24-28 Psalm 98:1-6 Mark 3:22-30

Mark 3:25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

There is something about the human spirit that simply will not yield to another. We must be right, we must be first, we must be best. This even shows up in religion. We convince ourselves that we are fighting the good fight and that we are battling to defend the truth and lead others to the truth, and in fact we do have to battle lies and deceptions. But do we check ourselves to make sure that we are not fighting against the truth? Do we check ourselves to make sure that we are not fighting against Christ himself?

Before we shoot our arrows for the Lord, we need to make sure that we are not shooting them at him. Remember, the church is the body of Christ, and when we shoot our arrows at the church, we are shooting them at Christ's body. Let's make sure we are fighting the lies and not the church.

Father, hep me by your Holy Spirit to discern what is true and what are lies and then to make sure that I don't attack your body the church instead of the lies.

Amen