Division

It is a situation that plays itself out in more and less significant ways: Christians divided. A CYO basketball game between two neighboring parishes. Parents of the young players scream insults and threats at one another and assert their “superiority.”

A Protestant and a Catholic church sit on adjoining properties. Each is vigilant about having parking violators removed from its own “private” parking lot. An old pastor retires but continues to reside at the parish. A new pastor arrives and quickly finds his faith “community” choosing sides against him. Saint Paul addresses similar disagreements in the early church at Corinth.

He encourages the church there to make up their differences and to be united again in their belief and practice. Today’s first reading from Isaiah speaks of a people weighed down by the yoke of sin and darkness. Certainly the bickering and differences among us can be classified as such. The Gospel tells of the beginning ministry of Jesus. The Light has come, encouraging us to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”