Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church
(II Samuel 5:1-7.10; Mark 3:22-30)
With the Feast of the Conversion of St.
Paul tomorrow another Week of Christian Unity comes to an end. Once, not very long ago, Christian unity
seemed a near reality. Statements of
agreements were signed. Pastors
exchanged pulpits. More recently,
however, unity seems more like an automobile without wheels – more remote than
near possibility. St. Francis de Sales,
however, experienced much more difficult ecumenical relations. His virtue may provide a roadmap out of the
impasse.
Francis lived in France at the end of the
sixteenth century. The country was
experiencing civil unrest between the Catholic majority and the large Calvinist
population. Francis was something of a novelty, a soft-spoken scholar characterized
by humility and deference. He was named
bishop of Geneva but could not reside there because of the hostile Calvinist
government. In a city of France twenty-two
miles to the south he worked among the people promoting spirituality of the
laity.
In today’s gospel Jesus says that “a house
divided against itself cannot stand.”
Divisions have plagued Christianity since the beginning. This reality does not prove Jesus wrong. It does require that the strongman – in the
gospel Satan; in the Church, arrogance – be arrested. Then the Church will be able to complete its
mission of bringing Christ to the whole world.
