So, how do we get to heaven? What’s the most important thing to remember? And Jesus answers them, “Love God, and love your neighbor.” The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
So why does it seem these days that everyone is fighting with everyone else? To the devil’s absolute delight.
The devil loves division, all kinds of division. Can’t talk to that uncle about politics. Satan giggles. Don’t trust those people who don’t speak English. He’s thrilled. How about the people who watch that other network? He’d love you to hate them, too! Or that person who always makes dumb decisions at work. Go ahead, the man with the little red tail whispers in your ear…destroy her.
The deeper the division and the more ferocious the hate, the happier the devil is. And on some days lately, he must be really really happy.
Ezekiel gives us a list of ways to make the devil happy from his day. Oppress the immigrant! Persecute the widows and their children! Only give something to someone if he promises to pay you back, with interest! Turn your back on the poor and the homeless and anyone else you don’t like.
You will make the devil very very happy!
For the Lord has only two laws: Love God and Love your neighbor.
Which is why he sent us the Holy Spirit to make us one. Do you remember what Jesus prayed at the last Supper?
Ut unum sint! “…that they all might be one, that just as Christ is one with the Father, that we might be one in him. (Cf. John 17:21)
It is what we pray for in the Eucharistic Prayer: “in your compassion, O merciful Father, gather to yourself all your children scattered throughout the world.”
But such a work will not happen magically. God will not wave a magic wand. Rather he has commanded us to be the agents of his in-gathering, by loving others as he loved us. It is like the old song, “Let there be peace on earth, but let it begin with me.”
And such peace, such unity will not come about when we figure out the best words with which to convince all those people to think like we do. It will come only with love.
So are you sick of all the division and of tickling the devil’s little red ears with our hate for each other and endless arguing.
Then love your neighbors. Seek out the good in them, rather than seeking their faults as reasons to reject them. Don’t compete with your neighbor, love him.
“The greater divider,” the Holy Father reminded us once, tempts us to seek out “the weaknesses of [our] brothers and sisters. He is cunning: he magnifies their mistakes and defects, sows discord, provokes criticism and creates factions.” (Pope Francis, 20 January 2021) But Jesus does the opposite. He teaches us not to see in our brother someone to compete with, but someone to love.
For if we love one another as he has loved us, Christ will gather us in from the diaspora of our sins and be make us one in him, that the “full number of the nations, gathered together in Christ, [might] be transformed into [his] one people and made perfect in [his] Kingdom.” (Rite of Ordination, Prayer for the Ordination of a Priest)
Jesus, son of David, make it so. Make us one in you.
