Ancient Hatreds

Today we face many existential threats. What is an existential threat? It is threat to life, to the existence of mankind.

Jesus said, “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” But mankind is always dividing itself into groups. Our unity is supposed to reflect the unity of the Trinity, so making and remaining in a family group, for example, is not a bad thing. The family group is essential to the future of a peaceful society.

However, within society we tend to identify ourselves as members of groups by which we separate ourselves from others, and that is bad. It may be inevitable, but it is bad. The divisions between individuals, groups, areas and nations is not the fruit of God’s grace and love.

When we separate ourselves from others in terms of “us” and “them”, no matter what the basis of the division is, we are really attacking the fundamental existential truth that we are one under God.

Jesus became Man to unite us all in his temporal and eternal reign. He is Jesus the King. Only through Him can we find peace.

Written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU ARE LISTENING:

As I have talked about many times, the great dichotomy of the world is "Us" and "Them."  And in the readings today we see two examples of it.  The first is Paul's letter to the Corinthians where they were basically creating within themselves "Us" and "Them."  The ones who are important, who are wealthy, got to do things, the poor people were excluded, the ones we didn't like were excluded.  They were treated differently. 

And then Paul comes back and says, "No."  There is one sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  There is the one Eucharistic celebration.  It isn't a question of, "You're all right.  You're all right.  You can't come.  You can't come."  It is not "Us" and "Them." 

And in the gospel reading we see another example of the "Us" and "Them."  The Centurion is "Them," yet Jesus comes to him.  And in the Centurion Jesus sees faith.  And we live in a faith where Jesus came for all of us.  That by that very definition, there are no "Us" and "Them."  Jesus did not go through and say, "Well I died for her, but I didn't die for him.  I died for him."  It didn't work that way.  Jesus died for everyone.

And the problem, and it is a problem that has been plaguing me a great deal.  We, today, in the United States, and throughout the world, are facing an existential threat, to Christianity, to Western democracy, and it, too, focuses on the issue of "Us" and "Them." 

We see it in the political world going on in the United States, Western Europe, of the Trumps and the Democrats. And we've gotten to the point where they can't talk, and they see each other in very nasty terms.  "Oh you guys are just a bunch of... Catholics who believe that people have right to have their life."  "Oh, you people just believe in abortion..," just to pick an issue, and many others. 

But there is an existential threat that is behind all of this and it is an issue, some of us may live long enough to see a lot of it coming to the fore.  I don't think any of us will live long enough to see it coming to a solution.  And the existential threat comes from the Islamic world.  And the Islamic world and Christianity has always been a point of clashing. 

And it is very difficult when you are living in a western democracy where you believe in the basic premise that all men are created equal, or you are living in a Christian society that believes that Christ died for all of us on the Cross, and you’re dealing with a group of people who look different, they talk different, and at least a portion of them are dangerous.  They are not coming to us and saying, us being western Europe, the United States, everybody knows that's a better place to be, but they're not coming to a different world and saying, "I want to go to the United States and become like the Americans.  I want to become Christian because..." 

They are instead saying, "I want to come to get away from the mess that is where my life is, where I am living, and I am going to stay the same way I am."  And then they can see in the United States, or in western Europe, things that they don't want.  The danger is, and it is a danger that has to be dealt with and is not being dealt with, is the reaction of Christianity, western Europe to that influx of people who by their very definition are perceived to be "Them."

We see recently an election in Sweden, which is a little obtuse, but the Swedes are always the epitome of, "Hey man, I love you.  We're going to do everything for you."  Yet even in Sweden you see a reaction… a right wing reaction.  And the difficulty is not the political issue.  It isn't the political issue.  I don't care, right, left, it doesn't matter.  The difficulty is the classification of a group of people as "Them."  The perception of, "We don't want ‘Them’ to come into ‘Our’ country," instead of perceiving them as human beings for whom Christ died on the cross.

They are "Them" and you see Pope Francis constantly struggling against this issue.  You see others talking about it.  Living in the ideal of the democratic society of there is no "Us" and "Them."  And there is a perception of, and that is achieving legitimacy, of "Us" and "Them" with the application of the Islamic group coming in as "Them."  And it has the danger of permitting "Us" to do things against "Them" that we would not do to one of "Us." 

I have talked about that before.  We go back to World War II, and the things that happened in China, and the things that happened in Poland, and in Germany with regard to the Jews where the Nazis’ "Us" and "Them" came to the forefront.

Where the real danger is coming, in my view, is not simply in the Islamic world although that is going to be a key point.  If I am going to be able to say, "They are something different."  They, the Islamic, are something different. I can justify treating them differently.  All of the sudden that's one of those threads that you start pulling and the fabric falls apart.  

Therefore it is justifiable to say, "That group of people are ‘Them,’” it then becomes justifiable to say that other groups of people are also "Them," with the dangers that flow from that. 

And society and religion and the West and the Islamic world have to deal with this threat, because the threat is dangerous.  It changes who we are.  As Catholics, if we react to people as, "Oh, they're "Them," when they walk into the doors of the Church, we can justify to ourselves saying, "Oh, they are "Them," and treat them differently. 

That is the thread that you start pulling.  Not only does it deal with a physical danger, but it deals with an expansion of a justification of treating people as "Us" and "Them."

And we have millennia of history of what occurs when one group perceives one group as "Us" and another as "Them."  Then comes to the situation that results in wars, it results in prejudice, it results in holocausts.  All of these bad things flow from it.  Which is what makes it an existential threat to the world. 

What are we supposed to do sitting here in Farmers Branch? Well, it's real simple.  I talked about it when I first started out: the wonder of Mary Immaculate.  The wonder of seeing in each and every person who walks through the door and who you encounter today as "Us."  To see each and every person as a neighbor.  A neighbor with differences?  Yes.  But a neighbor who we are called to love. 

And we see this has a profound effect on each and every one of us.  And it is something for which we are to aspire.  We are to aspire to be able to look at the world and see "Them" as "Us."  Because without that we fall into the danger of treating people as "Them."

And again, as I said, in the United States the most obvious example of that is the color of skin.  We have hundreds of years of a history of creating a new type of horrendous slavery based on one premise: that your color of skin, made you "Them," and therefore we can justify.  And that's what makes it an existential threat because we start perceiving the world as "Us" and "Them," then the multitude of sins that can come from that, sins of the violation of the second Great Commandment, the sins that can occur when you perceive people as "Them" are just self-destroying, not only destroying "Them" , but it destroys ourselves.

9/17/2018