When the Catholic Church is attacked, do you do your share in defending it? In your own simple ways, how do you promote unity in the Church? - Daily Reflections January 26,2015

A HOUSE DIVIDED

Today, we celebrate the memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus, both bishops and close collaborators of St. Paul. We are told that Paul ordered Timothy to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3). He was, in effect, tasked with keeping the unity of the faith, and purity of doctrine and Christian practice.

       I invite my dear readers to pray to both bishops for help and guidance. It is very hard now to keep one’s sense of balance in the Church that we love. Although not yet in an alarming stage, only those deep in denial would say that all’s well on the homefront. Extreme progressives, also known as liberals, continue to attack the Church frontally. On the other extreme end are the rightists and fundamentalists who hold on to their guns and keep firing at those who are suspected of being liberals. On the liturgical front, the “antiquarians” scoff at those guilty of “presentitis.” The former hold that only ancient forms and ancient vestments are valid, while the presentitists continue to abuse, alter and murder the Roman Catholic liturgy with gross improvisations, innovations and variations galore.

          Both actually harm the Church. Both extremes do a lot of disservice to the mystical body of Christ.

       Timothy was ordered to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.” That is the duty and office of a bishop in front of God and in the one Church that Christ founded.

         We need to be aware that we all form one body as believers. If we believe, then we should also belong to the one Church, conscious that there is only one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one God and Father of all. It is part of our sacred duty and right to foster unity in faith, unity in worship, and unity in doctrine: one creed, one code, one cult.

       How very appropriate that today’s Gospel reminds us: “A house divided against itself will not be able to stand.” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: When the Catholic Church is attacked, do you do your share in defending it? In your own simple ways, how do you promote unity in the Church?

Dear God, we trust that You are holding Your Church in the palm of Your hand and that You will not let it be defeated by attacks, both from the inside and out.