One morning recently I awoke with the following verse in my head: “the community of believers was of one heart and one mind” (Acts 4:32). Why I am waking up with Bible verses in my head is beyond me! But, when I read the daily readings, I was presented with this verse from St. Paul to the Philippians 2:2: “complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.”
I was sensing a theme – unity in heart and mind among the followers of Christ.
As we are all well aware, our country is not exactly united in heart and mind right now. (Is that not the understatement of the century?!)
In fact, just days before these verses were presented to me, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court was announced. The internet and media was lit up with anti-Catholic sentiment, not only from non-Catholics. Even other Catholics were opposing this well-educated, well-qualified, Catholic woman, simply because she holds firmly to Catholic beliefs and morals.
I was disheartened. This just made obvious the terrible rift in our society and also within our faith.
There are those who say others are not Catholic enough, and then those who say others are too Catholic, as if it were possible to hold too closely to the faith and following Christ.
There are some Catholics who hand-pick which doctrines they like and the ones they’ll ignore. Then, there are others who are critical of anyone who appears to not be devout enough.
And if you support certain politicians, you are the enemy. You are despicable, and it’s okay to despise you!
Mind you, I understand how easy this is. I have fallen prey to many of these defects myself and find myself seeking forgiveness for it regularly. I often lack mercy and gentleness, and I can easily harbor condemnation in my haert. So I preach to myself with these words.
We all fall short of the mark when it comes to living Christ-life lives. It’s just so easy to see now in our highly contentious social climate.
Clearly, we have forgotten a few key lessons from Christ that are necessary for truly following him.
First, we have forgotten the Greatest Commandment:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:30-31 (emphasis mine)
There is that idea again, of using all of one’s heart and mind! But more on this later. For now, let’s focus on the second part of the greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself.
Sadly, we have forgotten who our neighbor is!
But Jesus’ teaching is quite clear. Everyone is our neighbor! Even our “enemy” – that Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, pro-life or pro-choice voter, devout or lapsed Catholic – is our neighbor.
For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same…But rather, love your enemies and do good to them…Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6: 32-36 (emphasis mine)
Gotta love it when Jesus calls us out on poor behavior!!
So, are we ill-tempered toward those with whom we disagree? Do we lash out unjustly? Are our actions and words sewing discord? Do we behave obstinately when someone questions our viewpoint? Is our anger leading us to denigrate the dignity of our neighbors? Do we harbor hatred towards another person? Do we wish harm to befall our “enemies”?
None of the above behaviors are loving and charitable. None of them is Christ-like. We are we to avoid those behaviors but we are told to do the opposite – to do good to our enemies and be merciful.
But, our pride hardens us, blinds us and deafens us.
Not only can’t we be merciful, but we cannot see the ways in which we might be wrong or in need of repentance. We cannot recognize the dignity of our neighbor. And we cannot recognize the voice of God.
As pride takes hold of us, it can leads to other dark and sinful places. Pride leads to discord, malice, despair, detraction, hypocrisy, obstinacy, hardness of heart, wrath, and hatred.
When we find ourselves experiencing some of these negative emotions, we need to recognize them as a red flag! These feelings and emotions are not Christ-like. They can be a warning sign that we are drifting from Him. The emotion is not necessarily sinful, but the action that arises can be.
And now here comes in another Gospel lesson that we tend to ignore.
We focus our attention on the splinter in our neighbor’s eye, while ignoring the giant beam of wood in our own eye.
Oh, how easy it is to criticize one’s neighbor for a great many things!
Are we really so self-righteous to believe we are free from sin and imperfection, so that we can cast that stone at another? Are we purposely seeking out affirmation of our tightly held opinions and beliefs from those we know are sympathetic? Is our pride blinding us to the ways in which we are falling short from following Christ? Is it possible that we have misunderstood Church teaching and now our arguments are sewing discord?
It’s so easy to believe that we have the more virtuous answer and virtuous reasons for arguing, criticizing and condemning. And maybe it is true. However, we should distrust our own instincts (they are usually tainted with pride and misunderstanding).
Because, as we focus our energy on arguing, condemning and acting self-righteously, we are both loosing our souls to sin and we are also doing harm to others. Rather than convincing others of our point of view, our actions have the potential to lead others away from Christ.
We need to take our feelings and thoughts captive to God. We need to turn to Him in these moments. Our pride doesn’t want to look inward, but instead, pushes us to turn on our neighbor. To prevent acting in a way that is opposite of goodness and mercy, we should always turn first to God in prayer. We should be of one heart and one mind, united in Christ.
Not only should we do good to our neighbor through our actions, but we are also responsible for our neighbors!
Think hard about those whose faith is fragile, or those who are lapsed or nominal Catholics, even those who have just begun to experience a conversion.
When we go out into the world as a professed Catholic, we represent Christ. That carries with it a grave responsibility to act in accord with the Gospel.
If we choose to support something that goes directly against the Ten Commandments, we are not following Christ.
If we publicly support, proclaim or represent anything other than Gospel truths, we risk damaging the faith of others.
If we are a Catholic and accept something as licit that is gravely immoral, and we encounter a person who is unsure of the moral law, then it is on our conscience when they are lead astray.
It is easy to say that we love the Lord. It is quite a different story to actually walk the walk. We would do well to remember Jesus’ warning about true and false disciples:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Matthew 7:21-22
If we are Catholic and do not accept all the teachings of Christ and His Church, then we have work to do. It is so vitally essential to our own soul and to the souls of our neighbors to get this right! It is of eternal consequence.
If there is a commandment, doctrine, dogma, or moral teaching with which we struggle, it is our responsibility to seek for understanding. But if we choose to turn our backs on certain hard sayings, difficult doctrines, or unfathomable dogmas, even though we appear to be practicing Catholics, we are lying and “the truth is not in us” (see 1 John 1:8-10, 1 John 2).
It is easy to cast stones. It is not easy to take that beam out of one’s own eye.
Let us ask Christ for an increase in faith, for greater understanding, for more mercy, and especially for an increase in humility to accept that we might not have all the answers or be as virtuous as we think.
Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Life. He has given us all the tools we need to follow the narrow path. It is not an easy path but it is navigable, if we choose to find and follow it. We are promised: seek and you will find. Christ will not leave us in the dark.
Let us look to the disciples in the Acts of the Apostles as our example, a community of believers who were of “one heart and one mind.”
Let us not rely on our own flawed hearts and minds, but be united with the heart and mind of Christ. Only by converting our own hardened hearts and blinded minds to be one with the mind of Christ, can we possibly hope to love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.
Let’s do the hard work. Remove the beam. Repent of our sins. Learn the faith. Change our hearts. Follow the path. Live the Great Commandment.
