Roc Homily (a) – 3rd Sunday Ordinary Time (A) 2017

The Prayer for Christian Unity also serves to highlight our divisions.  I understand that there are somewhere around 25,000 different Christian Churches in the US. NOT denominations, churches, and each one claiming absolute truth.

Our remembrance of the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade also brought up deep divisions in our country around “Who is truly human?” and the question of “Who gets to decide?”  President Trump’s inauguration occasioned it as well.  The Packers & Atlanta, the Patriots & Steelers – rivalries. Politics around the world and in the Church… It seems to be our birthright.

We seem to be a people hell-bent on dividing ourselves from “them.”  Why?  And, why did St. Paul feel the need to write his brothers & sisters at Corinth about this matter?

[This is not about Kumbaya and Why Can’t We be Friends?  I have little hope for mass reconciliation in our time.  It’s more about this: How do we pray as a divided Church? ]

1 Corinthians 1:10-13     I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.
I mean that each of you is saying,
“I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” 
or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”
Is Christ divided?

Please consider this this afternoon & tonight:

What plays out in your life that fosters divisions and why?