“What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man”

“The deepest of level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless ... beyond speech ... beyond concept.” ― Thomas Merton: (1915 – 1968: was an American Catholic writer & a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky)

Gospel Text: (LK 11:14-23)

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute,
and when the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons."
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them,
"Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste
and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand?
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace,
his possessions are safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.
Whoever is not with me is against me,
and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

Americans can reflect on the profound examples of the Founding Fathers in establishing a human government based upon the rights and truths that come from God. Yet history shows how their efforts were met with great opposition. Their example mirrors one of the truths that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel passage, summed up by the saying of Benjamin Franklin about the risks of the American Revolution: “We must all hang together, or we will all hang separately.”

Unity is one of the four marks of the Church that Jesus founded when He walked this earth. Entire books have been written to explore what this mark of unity does and does not mean. Jesus’ words at the end of today’s Gospel passage shed some light on the matter: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” The latter half of this sentence hints that the unity Jesus is calling for derives from the act of the will.

Unity—whether within the Church, within a family, within a diocese, or between an individual Christian and God—depends on individual human wills lining up with the divine Will. When human wills are in focus with the divine Will, those human wills become like a magnifying glass. The best example of a human person doing so is our Blessed Mother, who begins her canticle by praying, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”