Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter

A selfie with today's prayer

Lectionary: 290

Remember the word I spoke to you,
‘No slave is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.” 

Escaping from the religious wars of 16th and 17th century Europe, the British colonizers of the American colonies dreamed of a society where every Christian denomination would tolerate the presence of competition and air their differences quietly, without strife. Without a state sponsored religion, which was banned by the late 18th century Constitution of the United States, no church could oppress her sister churches. As they forgot their hereditary suspicions, citizens would agree that, "There's only one God. It doesn't matter which church you attend."

And, indeed, for many Catholics, it hasn't mattered. They blended readily into the population, sharing the same values, working in the same economy, living in the same neighborhoods. There was little difference between Protestant and Catholic moral teachings The only distinctions happened inside the church building on Sunday morning, but it remained invisible beyond the opaque, stained glass windows.

And then divorce, birth control, abortion, and gay marriage became socially and morally acceptable to most Americans. Suddenly, it did matter which church you attended. 

Many people complained about the response from the Catholic pulpit. They complained, "The Church should get out of the bedroom!" But it was impossible that our moral principles should not penetrate the private chambers of human society where intimate conflicts are resolved and children are conceived. 

Divorce has hung over our nation like a nuclear winter for over a century. Although the suffering is deep and intense it seems normal to children and grandchildren who were born in its darkness. Many have no memory of parents living in the same household and loving one another. They have not seen quarrels resolved and reconciliations which effectively bond husbands and wives in a stronger-than-death union. They have assumed that infidelity annuls the vows of marriage and justifies divorce. Many have never known their father. They have been deprived of their natural right to biological parents who live together and love one another. 

Because the pain of divorce is widespread and apparently normal, its effects are also taken for granted: intimate partner violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide. Nor should conflicting races -- white, black, native, and Asian -- expect to be reconciled when husbands and wives regard their conflicts as insoluble. If sexual desire cannot overcome conflicts and restore harmony, how could segregated citizens expect to form a more perfect union? Suspicion, fear, and deceit are regarded as normal; in the chaos, the weak must perish, the strong might survive. 

The Gospel comes like a brilliant bolt of lightning to this violent nation. The One who demands obedience of every creature thunders his battle cry, "Be still and know that I am God! Supreme among the nations; supreme on the earth!" Salvation comes to those ready to obey the Word of God. 

They must expect conflict. "If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." The era of good feeling has ended; it now makes a difference which church you attend. Catholics cannot conform to the American way of life.