11 July 2022
Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
“Who is my neighbor?” the scholar asked yesterday. “I have come to bring not peace but the sword,” Jesus says today. Are we hearing from the same Jesus?
Indeed we are. Why the shift in gears?
In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus was teaching us about our responsibility toward God and one another; Mother Theresa once taught that “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” How true! For peace is the result of division; when we constantly see one another as “other,” when division is the nature of all human interaction, then there will be no peace. Heaven is communion; Hell is discord at best, or perhaps utter isolation at worst. Regardless, we are to love one another, to foster communion and peace in anticipation of Heaven’s communion. This is beautifully modeled in the Rule of St. Benedict and the order’s tradition of hospitality.
Jesus, however, reveals to us a sad facet of fallen reality: that the Truth of Himself will be a cause for division, even between those who would profess to love one another the most. How can this be? Jesus reveals that those who reject the Cross, who chose to love someone or something more than Him, will ultimately find that the same Jesus who came to be our peace and reconciliation (Ephesians 2:14-16) will be the opposite. A heart—like a home—that is already fully occupied has no room for an additional guest. If we cannot make room to receive Jesus, then we will be like those in Nazareth who, at the appointed time of His first coming, said, “There is no room.” God save us from hearing the same sad words from His mouth when we approach the threshold of our Father’s house one day.