Monday January 23, 2006 (Audio) Homily by Fr. Robert Altier Third Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (2 Samuel 5:1-7, 10) Gospel (St. Mark 3:22-30)
In the Gospel reading today, Our Lord tells us that any kingdom divided
against itself cannot stand and any house divided against itself cannot stand.
Now in the context, of course, He is talking about the kingdom of Satan. He
says, How can Satan drive out Satan? The devil obviously is not going to do that.
But the devil will sometimes play a little game and have people do things like
go to psychics and palm readers and so on, who claim they will be able to help
the person get rid of whatever their spiritual problem happens to be. They call
on a stronger demon to get rid of a lesser one. For a few moments, even perhaps
for a few weeks, it seems that the person is better; then the problem gets
worse. The reason the problem gets worse is because they called upon a stronger
demon. So then the person goes back and they call on something even stronger.
They play this little game, but you see that obviously the devil is not going
to drive out the devil. It is just a little game they play, and the psychics
become very wealthy doing it. They know exactly what they are doing.
It is a mortal sin to go to a psychic in the first place, and if you
do, you have to understand who they are calling on. It is not God. If we went
to one of them, we would be a house divided. We would be claiming faith in
Jesus Christ and then seeking something outside of Him. Unfortunately, there
are lots of Catholics who are doing exactly that these days. They are looking
to all kinds of things to gain knowledge, to gain power, to gain whatever they
think they want. These are mortal sins. Going to tarot card readers, going to
psychics, going to palm readers, all of these things are mortal sins.
But all we have to do is look even at something that is less obvious.
The Catholic Church is the kingdom of God in this world, and each one of us is
a member of the household of God, Saint Paul tells us. Each one of us
individually is a temple of the Holy Spirit; each one of us is a house of God.
Therefore, if we are members of Jesus Christ and we claim that we are followers
of Jesus Christ, yet we believe things contrary to Jesus Christ, we are a house
divided. The Lord is the truth. He has made that very clear. If we decide we do
not want the truth, or that we are going to accept something that is contrary
to the truth, then we are a house divided and that house cannot stand. It is
not the kingdom of God that is going to crash, because God is all in all;
therefore, as we become living members of the household of God, our interior
division is not going to cause God’s house to crash, because He does not gain
anything by us being part of His house. It is we who gain by being part of
God’s house.
If we decide we do not want to believe some point of truth that the
Church teaches, regardless of what it is, we are not Catholic. We can just go
through the obvious list that people have trouble with: they do not want to
believe in Purgatory these days; they do not want to believe in the Church’s
teaching on contraception; they do not want to believe that they have to go to
Confession; they do not want to believe that Jesus is truly present in the
Blessed Sacrament. On and on the list can go of all of the little things that
they want to claim, “Oh, I’m Catholic, but…” No, you are not. If you put a
“but” in there, you are no longer part of the household of God. You are a house
divided. It is an all or nothing proposition. You either believe in Jesus Christ
– meaning not the objective little statement: “I believe that Jesus is God” –
or you do not. Remember what Saint James says, Even the
demons believe and they tremble, so that is not enough. If we are going to say
that we believe in Jesus Christ, that we are a member of Jesus Christ, and that
we are a member of the household of God, it means we have to be obedient; it
means we have to believe in every single thing that Jesus Christ teaches, in
every single thing that He is, because He is the truth.
We are made for the truth and the truth will set us free. If we choose
error over truth, not only are we a house divided, but instead of having the
freedom of the children of God, we are now shackled in the enslavement of error
– and ultimately enslaved to Satan. We need to recognize that our freedom is
going to be in accepting and embracing the truth and living it. Not in being
divided by saying, “Well, I know that’s what the Church teaches, but I don’t
personally believe it.” If we say that, we have cut ourselves off from Christ,
because the Church is Jesus Christ; and if we are not going to believe in what
the Church teaches, then we do not believe in what Jesus Christ teaches. And if
we do not believe in what He teaches, then we are no longer fully a part of Him.
We are a house divided; and a house divided, He says, cannot stand. We are
going to fall.
So we have a choice to make. Are we going to make ourselves entirely
members of Jesus Christ? Or are we going to fall? The fall ultimately means
that we will end up in hell, that we cut ourselves off from Christ. Obviously,
that is not an option any of us wants, not only for ourselves but for anyone.
But in this world, way too many people have decided that they can “play god,”
that they will decide what is right and wrong, that they will decide what is
true and false. We already have One Who is the truth, Who has presented the
fullness of truth and is Himself the fullness of truth. If we are going to
accept Jesus Christ and say that we believe in Him, then we must believe fully
as members of His house, as members of His very person. Otherwise, we are a
house divided against our own selves and we are a living lie, saying one thing
but believing and living another. And a house divided against itself cannot
stand.
* This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.