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Gospel: Luke 17:20-25
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
Then he said to his disciples,
“The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In his novel, War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy wrestles with the stinging irony uniting love and war. Both test and transform the human spirit. Both cause people to search for meaning amidst the internal chaos of a ballroom or the overt chaos of the battlefield.
His story unfolds in 19th century Russia while Napoleon conquers large swaths of Europe.
“War began,” he writes, “that is, an event took place contrary to human reason and to the whole of human nature. Millions of people committed against each other a countless number of deceptions, betrayals, thefts, robberies, arsons, and murders.”
Tolstoy laments the awful truth that these atrocities were often committed by one Christian against another.
A truth that has repeated itself throughout history.
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Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Josaphat, a bishop and martyr, born in 16th century Poland – a land which Napoleon himself would later divide and conquer.
Born to Eastern Orthodox parents, Josaphat not only found his calling as a priest, but he also spent his life striving for Christian unity. To this day, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church are divided, a schism dating back to the year 1054.
Although there are cultural, historical, linguistic, and even theological differences between the East and the West, Josaphat couldn’t fathom how Christians could remain divided; rather, he sought to answer Christ’s prayer, “That they may be one, Father, as we are one.”
This call for unity is ultimately what cost him his life. In 1623, a mob of Eastern Orthodox Christians attacked him, beat him to death, then threw his body into a river. Amazingly, it was later recovered and buried in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
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Both Tolstoy and Saint Josaphat remind us that division is not something that only happens “out there,” in the cold and darkness of the world. Rather, we are all responsible for it.
As another Russian novelist put it, “If it were only so easy, but the dividing line between good and evil cuts through every human heart.”
When we survey the political landscape of our nation, or the religious landscape of our Church, in what ways do Christians still fight amongst themselves? And what would unity look like, instead?
May Saint Josaphat pray for us, that we would seek to live like him – an agent of Christ’s peace.
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Image credits: (1) CBR (2) Catholic World Report (3) Paulist Fathers