Healing Power

"If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand." Mk 3:25

Years ago, a wise priest friend and mentor told me that if anyone has more than three non negotiables in a relationship, they shouldn't be in that relationship. At the time, he was helping me learn the art of pastoral counseling, and it was advice he often gave to married couples. Imagine, he said, what it would be like for you to come to my rectory and find little notes up everywhere about which cup to use for coffee, how to say mass, which vestments to use and exactly where to park your car. I don't imagine you would want to return to help in this parish. When married couples find themselves in this kind of relationship, especially with regard to how to raise children, the marriage really struggles.

Over the years, I offered my friends wisdom to our young friars about communal living. When one friar tries to control others by spoken and unspoken rules our sense of belonging breaks down and the friars find themselves looking for excuses not to be home and, in the name of ministry, absent themselves from common prayer and meals.

In today's gospel, Jesus is warning his contemporaries about much the same thing. In response to those who are upset by his casting out demons while at he same time accusing him of being possessed by a devil, he reminds his listeners that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus drives out demons and cures people to bring them back into the community of believers, not to divide them. Clearly, it is the envy of the Jewish leaders that is dividing the community, not Jesus' power.

Today, listen twice as much as you speak, and see what healing comes to you and your family.