3rd Week of Lent 2018 - Thursday - A divided house cannot stand

There are three accounts in the Gospels in which Jesus states that a kingdom divided against itself is laid waste or a house divided cannot stand (Luke 11:17; Mark 3:25; Matthew 12:25). All three instances of this statement are spoken in response to the Pharisees’ accusation that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan.

Jesus points out that their claim is ridiculous, that the Pharisees themselves were divided. They claimed to serve God, and yet, their error,
their self-serving traditions, exposed their interior division.
Scripture speaks often about the danger of division. St. James writes that the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. The Christian who is divided in his loyalty between the Gospel and the world will experience instability, insanity, in a sense.

St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, a community riddled with division: division in belief and division in practice. Many Christians in Corinth failed to reject immoral practices like drunkenness, lust, theft and extortion, and this was bringing ruin to the community. St. Paul writes to Timothy, that servants of the Lord should not be quarrelsome. Quarrelsomeness which pits brother against brother, spouse against spouse, parent against child, destroys the peace and harmony which should mark Christian communities and Christian families.

Rather, God commands unity of believers and also single-heartedness within the individual Christian. Unity of belief is to be a mark of the Church. Cafeteria-Catholicism, where one picks and chooses which doctrines to believe, which moral teachings to follow, certainly undermines the Church’s credibility in the present age. But it also undermines the power of the Gospel to bring peace and strength and joy to our hearts.

The season of Lent impels us into the desert with Jesus, to engage in the prayer and fasting which brings about the single-mindedness which should characterize the Christian life, which characterized the faithfulness of the Son of God in the mission given to Him by his Father.

St. John Paul, in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life, writes that "Prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil." Prayer and fasting are life-giving practices because they expose us to the source of life, God Himself. They heal us of our interior-dividedness, and transform us into ever-more effective instruments of peace and love in the Church and in the world, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.