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This past week, a Gospel reading from Daily Mass brought us face to face with one of the most difficult sayings of Jesus to understand. I'm sure you remember it: "Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? I assure you, the contrary is true; I have come for division. From now on, a household of five will be divided three against two and two against three; father will be split against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother…"
Jesus regularly spoke in terms that were meant to shock, and this was, and remains, a shocking assertion. What could he have meant? Did not the angels at his birth announce, "Peace on earth and good will toward men?" Is not Jesus called in the Scripture the Prince of Peace? Does not the rule of charity mean that we are meant to live in concord, in love and unity, with those around us? And yet here in the most solemn manner, driven home by examples of the most intimate relationships, Jesus announces: "I have come for division."
As always with such hard sayings, we need to avoid the temptation simply to ignore them and to focus only on texts that make sense to us. If we don't deal with this, we are reducing Christ, making him into our own image instead of being made into his. How then can this saying be understood in the light of so many other teachings of Christ that seem to go in a different direction?
A clue can be found in the prophecy given by the aged Simeon over the baby Jesus when he was first brought to the temple. "Behold," he said, "this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel… that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34-5). The mission of Christ, as he explains it himself, was "to bear witness to the truth." As that truth is revealed, so are the thoughts of hearts laid bare, and the world is divided into those who open their hearts and minds to the truth, and those who close them. Of course it is not for us to say who, in a given instance, is on one side of that division and who is on another. Judgment belongs to God. But such a division truly exists, and in the vision of God is clear.
Christ, then, does not cause division; he only reveals it. The true cause of the divisions of the human race is not Christ, but pride. It is a simple and profound truth: pride always divides; humility toward God and others always unites. This is true in friendships, in families, in marriages, in towns and cities and neighborhoods, and among nations. Our race is divided because of our disobedience, our pride, our desire to set ourselves up as our own masters. And the cure for that division is in finding the roads back to obedience, to humility, to allowing God to be our one Master.
As we grow closer to God himself, as we allow Christ to have his way with us, as we eat his body and drink his blood, we will begin to find the unity we so deeply desire, the unity that was shattered at our fall, and that will be triumphantly restored at the full coming of the Kingdom.
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Meanwhile, again in keeping with the directives of God's word, we "strive to live at peace with all men." But Christians know that this kind of peace, this practical getting along together, is not, and can never be, the unity of the human race that Christ came to bring. It might be a good thing to have a United Nations, but such a body will never really unite the world. It might be necessary to fight against terrorists or aggressive nations for the protection of peace, but such efforts can never bring real solidarity and the ending of conflict. We can talk about "one human family" and the desire to be "inclusive," but such ideas will remain mere powerless rhetoric unless they are founded on the only possible source of true unity, that of obedience to the will of God.
Knowing this, Christians are not overly dismayed when they face divisions that come from following the Gospel. They remember that Christ himself had to endure them, as did Mary, as did all the saints. It would have been better that such divisions, so painful when they cut across the closest human ties, did not exist, had never existed; but they are one of the difficulties the true disciple must bear with patience.
And we pursue true peace with all of our hearts. As St. Paul writes:
I plead with you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received, with perfect humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another lovingly. Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force (Eph 4:1-3).
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DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: A rabbi devoted many hours working in a city ghetto, offering whatever help he could to the homeless and destitute. A very successful diamond merchant challenged the rabbi as to why he wasted so much time with lowlifes and crazies. The rabbi asked the merchant if he had ever thrown out a million dollar diamond in the rough. "Never!" the merchant said emphatically. "An expert would know the worth of whatever he held in his hand." "I'll let you in on a secret, my friend," the rabbi responded. "I'm also an expert in diamonds. I walk the streets every day, and all I see are the most precious diamonds walking past me. Some of them you have to pick up from the gutter and polish. But once you do, oh, how they shine! The most important thing to know in life is that everyone, everyone, is a diamond in the rough."
CONNECTIONS: In the eyes of God, every man, woman, and child is a "diamond" of great value; every one possesses a goodness and dignity just by virtue of being created by God. As Jesus affirms the honesty of Zacchaeus in the eyes of his skeptical neighbors, as the humble rabbi reaches out to polish the poor and the needy of the gutter, so we are called to affirm that " imperishable spirit" of God existing in everyone as a child of God.
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