A CALL TO UNITY

 A SERMON FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

Today is the seventh day in the Chair of Unity Octave.  During this past week we have been praying for all those who are outside the Church that they may join or return to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  Today, our prayers are for the conversion of our Jewish brethren.  These prayers for unity are based not on the lowest common denominator of what we have in common with our Jewish friends, but rather on the fact that there is one God, one faith, and one baptism, and that true unity cannot exist except through membership of the Mystical Body of Christ—the Church.  Ecumenism claims to want unity.  But it is not true unity they desire.  Ecumenists do not seek to convert others to the truth, to bring those outside the Church into the true fold.  The aim of ecumenism is a false, superficial unity, where we pretend to be united.  “We all believe in “a God”, so therefore we have something in common, and therefore we are all united.”  Deluding ourselves that this is true unity is to set ourselves directly against the commandment of our Lord to his apostles, to go forth and spread the truth of the Gospel, baptizing those outside the Church into the Church.  Those outside the Church, whether Jewish or Moslem, or Jehovah’s Witnesses must be baptized into the true Church of Christ before they are united with us, or with God.

The apostasy the Church has endured since Vatican II has a way of working its way into civil and political life.  This week, former Vice President Joe Biden swore on a Bible to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and to defend us from all foes, foreign and domestic.  The first thing he said after this, according to the news media, was that “Democracy has prevailed.”  His first words as “president” were, appropriately enough, a lie.  Appropriate because his claim to be president has about as much truth as his claim to be Catholic.  And a lie because since the founding of this nation, there has never been such a resounding failure of democracy as the one we witnessed with this last election.  Even those gullible enough to believe that the election was not stolen must still admit that it was an exercise in failure, as a huge number of the population, probably tens of millions, still do not accept the legitimacy of its outcome.  So most certainly, democracy has not prevailed.

But what’s that, did I say?  That Biden isn’t Catholic?  Well, one of his first actions as he smugly sits in President Trump’s Oval Office, was to restore taxpayer funding to abortions performed overseas.  Biden, whom the new White House Press Secretary assures us is a “devout Catholic” just couldn’t wait to use his new power to murder more of our unborn babies.  Remember this, please, when you fill out your tax returns, and be aware of what your hard-earned dollars are paying for.

I mention this political fact to demonstrate how religious ecumenism has wiggled its way into the very life of our nation.  Because now the facts of what happened on November 3 of last year have been successfully hidden from the people, and instead of a nationwide cry of outrage, the only thing we hear is the shrieking chorus for “Unity!”  From every news anchor and magazine editor, from the US Catholic Bishops and the late-night comedians, we hear with one voice the clarion call to “Unite!”  At the end of the day, after all, we’re all Americans, we all have the same flag, the same Constitution, we pledge allegiance to the one nation, we’re all human beings, so let’s unite together and pledge our allegiance to the new “duly-elected” president…”  He’s “Catholic” and we’re Catholic.  We’re the same faith, the same religion.  We’re “one in the Spirit…” This is political ecumenism at its worst.  As traditional Catholics, we refuse to unite under an illegitimate pope, and as Americans faithful to the Constitution, we should apply the same principle where Caesar is involved.

Any desire for unity must be based on the will of God.  Peace and unity are pleasing to God, but it must not be at the expense of compromising sacred truths and our belief in them.  We can never unite good with evil.  Nor should we want to.  So with whom should we unite?  Who is good and who is evil?  We’re all sinners, after all.  The answer is simple.  The good are those who, having sinned, recognize they have offended God and have the good will to acknowledge their fault and make amends for it.  Evil people do not do that.  On the contrary, they attempt to justify their sins and even rejoice in them.  They boast about a “woman’s choice to do what she wants with her own body,” they fly rainbow flags to proclaim their pride in their vices.  This is how we distinguish the children of light from the children of darkness, the use of our free will to practice good will.  Peace and unity can only exist where there is good will.  “Glory to God in the highest,” sang the herald angels, “and peace to men of good will.”

We should always strive to unite with other men of good will.  This applies to our religious life and our civil life.  We are indeed all human beings, composed of body and soul, and inhabiting both the spiritual and physical domains.  The Church guides our religious beliefs and moral actions.  The State, meanwhile, has the responsibility for protecting and governing its citizens in the material domain.  But we are the same human beings who belong to both Church and State.  We cannot cut ourselves in half, and believe one thing when we go to Mass and the opposite when we go to work.  Only a twisted mind can think himself a good Catholic while at the same time proclaiming himself “pro-choice” and promoting laws that defy God’s commandments.  This is not the good will of which the herald angels sang on Christmas night, and there can be no peace with such people.  No unity!

The sad fact is, that in this world, there is chaff mixed in with the wheat.  Or to put it another way, there are sheep and goats all living together and trying to keep the peace.  That is acceptable to some extent, but we must never forget who we are.  Sheep and goats do not mix.  We sheep are not in union with the goats.  When the Day of Judgment arrives, the angels will separate the sheep from the goats once and for all.  There will certainly be no unity then.  We may be all mixed up together in this world, but not in the next.  On Judgment Day, sheep and goats will be sent on their separate ways, never to unite again. 

Love your neighbor.  Don’t judge him, but judge his actions and try to figure out who is of good will and who is not.  Let’s not make the mistake that just because our neighbor may hold the same US passport and pay taxes to the same IRS, they’re truly “one” with us.  I’ve seen Americans refusing to stand for the national anthem, burning the American flag in the streets, looting stores and tearing down statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  They may be Americans but there’s no uniting with these people.  Instead, treat them with the kind of love God expects of us.  St. Paul elaborates on how to do this in today’s Epistle to the Romans, “Recompense to no man evil for evil… if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink… Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”  In other words, don’t feel you have to go and stamp out these people.  Don’t hate them or use violence and hatred against them, no matter how strongly the anger and frustration may bubble up within us.  No, our anger is justified, but it must be controlled. 

But neither does it mean that we need to stand arm in arm with the enemies of our country, foreign or domestic, and be at one with them.  There are plenty of Americans who are our enemies, believe me.  Loving our neighbor has absolutely nothing to do with the kumbaya mentality of the ecumenists and folks screaming at us to “unite.”  Help our enemies when they need it, forgive them their trespasses, seek their salvation.  But don’t sit around the bonfire with them, toasting marshmallows and patting them on the back, assuring them what jolly good fellows they are. 

We need to remember—and practice—the words of the pagan centurion in today’s Gospel, when he said “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof.”  If we are to unite with anyone of good will, we must first unite with God, and the only way we can accomplish this union with God is through the sacrament he gave us, the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  Here we find true union with our Lord Jesus Christ, a union which extends to all others who are equally in union with him.  Here is real union, with our fellow members of his Mystical Body, the Church.