SCATTERED, EACH TO HIS OWN

SCATTERED, EACH TO HIS OWN

(Thursday, June 1)

This Thursday morning I’m thinking about how divided we are these days, scattered to our own little information-bubbles in a world that we perceive more through the screen of a mobile phone or computer than face-to-face. One might wonder, how can any church-community survive as one, in our Internet Age? In today’s Gospel-reading our Lord consoles us, that we may have “good cheer” and peace in Him, even while we go through this “tribulation”: “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own,” he says, “and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:32-33)

Church-unity is not realized by “us,” because we are powerless over “the world” and cannot overcome it by our own lights, try as we might. God, on the other hand, in His human-divine Son and by the grace of His Spirit, is and always will be One. He offers us one-ness in the Sacrament of Unity that is the Church, in its countless “sacraments” both within and beyond the walls of church-buildings. And by “sacraments” I mean those moments of communion or one-ness with Him, offered to us in various ways in our traditioned faith. It is in Him that we cease to be fragmented, both within ourselves and with one another. His unconditional love for us, and His hope and faith in us, even when we remain scattered, rubs off on us, so to say, when we do not hesitate to reach out to Him and nourish our love, hope, and faith in Him. We can carry His faith, hope, and love into our immediate and online “communities,” by focusing and re-focusing on His presence in our midst.

Let me not just talk or write about this today, but reach out for conscious contact with Him in a bit of healthy reading, contemplation, and prayer sprinkled throughout my day. The unity of the Church is fine, as our Lord reminds us, because He is “not alone,” remaining the undivided Trinity always, regardless of how many times we scatter into our own little screens and its tribulation(s). “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”