This Division is Necessary

We sure do hear a lot about division these days.

It is often wielded as an accusation against Satan (who is often described as the Great Divider), but also against those of Faith who are brave enough to stand up and fight against the evil in the Church and the perpetrators of that evil.

There are dividers within our government, dividing us by denying many the opportunity to worship and to live in the freedoms left to us by our founding fathers.

There are dividers wreaking havoc on our streets, organizing and executing riots against law and order.

There are dividers on social media platforms, news outlets, universities, businesses – all containing people intentionally dividing our nation.

But then Christ also stated that he will come to divide. We hear that Christ will divide the tears from the wheat, and the goats and the lambs; he will sort the fish.

Is all this division bad? I don’t think it is. There are different types of division at work here, and it is all being orchestrated in Heaven. This division is necessary. It is a process of separating the good from the evil. There are always at least two sides to a war, and that is what we are up against.

We are the Church Militant. We are soldiers for Christ. We are fighting a war.

This war, in the spiritual realm, is Satan against God.

The war of good and evil in the spiritual realm is between Satan and God. But the same spiritual war is being played out here on Earth. We are the chess pieces. The division in our world is forcing us to choose sides. We are either on the side of the Good (Christ) or the side of Evil (Satan). It is really that simple. We can see the line being drawn and the divide becoming more exposed and defined every day.

And then there are the lukewarm. If you remember, Christ describes the lukewarm as those he most despises. I always found this interesting; that the lukewarm could be more despised than the evil. Why is this? I think it is because the lukewarm are too apathetic to choose a side. They are oblivious to the good and evil going on around them. There is not much to be done with the lukewarm. They lack the passion to know Truth at all, so they will lack the passion to be redirected.

The job of the good is to wage war on the evil and defeat it. Defeat them. But we can't stop there. Once the evil ones are defeated, we are to convert them over to Christ. It is why we pray for our enemies. We don't want them lost. We must help them see the light and understand it. That is our job.

The evil ones we fight against are certainly passionate. We can convert that passion. We see it time and time again in the lives of the Saints; the greatest Saints we know were once the greatest sinners, St. Augustine, St, Paul and St. Francis, to name just a few.

In this war, we will lose some and we will win some. Christ would like all to be won but warns us it is not a reality. So, don't fear so much the division, it is necessary. Be watchful, your enemy prowls around like a lion, looking for those he can devour. At least he is making Himself known. Watch out for the lions and pray for the wisdom to know the difference between the ones who aren't so obvious. It can be tricky. Satan is good at disguise and he can wrap his evil in pretty packaging. With lots of prayer and the Sacraments, we can see through eyes of Faith instead of the worldly eyes that deceive.

Things are heating up. Evil is being exposed. Now comes our jobs of dispensing Charity and Hope, to convert it! Happy hunting!