Tuesday of the yet Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 474

For he is our peace, he made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his Flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one Body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it.

In this important passage, Saint Paul alludes to the “dividing wall” which still separated Jews from gentiles in the Temple of Jerusalem. He could not have known the temple would be razed in 70AD by Roman armies. But he clearly saw there was no need for a dividing wall among Christians. All are one in the Body of Christ.

There is a small Catholic cruciform chapel in Carville, Louisiana. The communion rails serve as dividing walls between the nave and the transepts. When the lepresarium was built, the rails separated the patients from others who might attend the Mass. The priest and servers were also contained in the very large sanctuary by the communion rails, separated from the patients, guests, and hospital staff. 

I was distressed when I saw it. Standing in the nave I could not exit through either transept and that felt irrational, restrictive, and unfair. Doctors have long known that Hansen Disease is not contracted by physical contact; the barriers were built of fear rather than medical science. 

As I think of that chapel I recall the separations and segregation that have characterized many Christian churches. Martin Luther King once observed that Sunday morning, ten a.m, is the most segregated hour in America. We have separate churches for "white" and "black;" and, more often, separate seating. Where the African-Americans once sat in a back corner of the Catholic church, they might now be afforded separate-but-equal seating on the left or right side of the church. But many people give the Catholic Church credit for allowing that much integration! A hundred and fify-five years after the Civil War, Saint Paul's vision has yet to appear in America's churches. 

And if integration has yet to enter our churches, can anyone be surprized at the invisible boundaries among our families, neighbors, coworkers, and friends? When I went to the seminary, I accepted the alphabetical arrangements of the chapel, study hall, dining room, classrooms, and locker room. When I was stationed in Louisiana, I was stunned to visit a high school and discover the students chose their own lockers. And they were, predictably, segregated. It was a democratically chosen policy, with few objections from any corner. 

When Saint Paul spoke of the one Body of Christ which united Jews and Gentiles and "put that enmity to death," he did not suppose the Roman Empire or the entire world should imitate the Church. 

He did suppose the Church should not imitate the world. 

Let us pray that God will forgive our reluctance and inspire us to act immediately, for He is our peace.