Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 317​


If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.



Today's first reading from 2 Samuel recalls David's uniting the various factions of the Hebrews, his capturing the "stronghold of Zion," and establishing the city as his capital city, Jerusalem. Sometime later, he seized the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to Jerusalem, thus uniting his political power to God's religious authority. The divine author approved that historical event saying, "David grew steadily more powerful, for the LORD of hosts was with him." Jerusalem has remained as a center of our faith to this day, although it is a famously divided city with three major religions claiming it as home.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln cited today's gospel in his "House Divided Speech," as he accepted the Republican nomination for a seat in the United States Senate. He began thus:

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.

Two years  later, after failing to win a senate seat, Lincoln became the president, and the Civil War followed. Unfortunately (and predictably), the nation was not united by civil war. But the division in the house was transformed from "free and slave" to "white and black." As a result, many African Americans who were not slaves before the war, were stigmatized as "black" afterwards, by the emergence of a superior "white race." This happened despite the fact that most "blacks" had "white" ancestors, and many "whites" had "black" ancestors. (White slave owners were notoriously unfaithful to their wives, religion, and "racial purity.")
More than a century later, we remain a deeply divided nation as "white" people cling to a mythical superiority, very often at their own expense. Millions of 'white" people were well-served by "Obamacare," although they hated it and have tried to dismantle it. Secondly, millions of white children attend inferior schools because taxpayers do not support integrated schools. Finally, thousands of white men take their own lives each year with the guns they claim as a white man's privilege. Indeed, they are Dying of Whiteness.

King David's unified kingdom didn't last either. His wastrel son Solomon lived way beyond the government's means; he was said to have a thousand wives. The nation of Israel separated from Judah and built a new capital at Shechem, and then Tirzah, under King Omri. The two nations were never reunited.
Today we're watching the kingdom of Great Britain  splinter into its component parts. Ireland departed almost a century ago; Northern Ireland and Scotland may leave soon; Wales could follow. United by power rather than affection, some historians say "Great Britain" was always a chimera.

Clearly no nation can expect to be united by one race or one religion. David ruled over many different tribes who worshipped many gods. If he worshipped only the God of the Hebrews, his descendants -- to placate a restive populace -- serviced alien shrines even within the Holy City.
Nor does any national government rule over a single "race." The very idea of race is no longer credible. 

"if you want peace," Pope Saint Paul VI said, "work for justice." And forget about your superiority to anyone.