Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.” (Mt 10:34-36)
I may have mentioned this before; however, it bears repeating. One of the most accurate reflections of this thought, in my way of thinking, was the division of families during the Civil War.
Our country’s history was very bloody.
Families — man against his father, daughter against her mother, siblings against one another — turned against each other as they clung to either the North or the South. Many families were destroyed as members were killed during that awful war.
Jesus knew that the same kind of thing would happen.
This time, it was going to happen based upon whether or not family members accepted belief in Jesus Christ.
It was going to be Christians against non-Christians instead of North against South. And there was not a lot that would be able to be done about it, at least not until people learned to live together as brother and sister in Christ.
That concept still separates people to this day.
I see it happen most often around Easter time.
At the Easter Vigil, we often bring someone into the Church with no family members present because the family has rejected their son or daughter, brother or sister, for making the decision to enter the Catholic Church.
Our world is still rife with division rather than with the unity that comes from knowing the Lord. That is why we need to live as peacemakers.
FAITH ACTION: Pray for families that are torn, particularly because of religious beliefs. Pray that healing may come to them.