From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2026 February 01)

Feb 1 - 4th Sunday OT

You know the feeling: the slightly sickening sensation, with a touch of vertigo, when you begin to realize that another person with whom you had been friendly has very different political views from your own. Many are experiencing that sensation these days, “when the thoughts of many hearts are being revealed” (cf. Lk 2:35). Indeed, it’s happening even here at St. Mark’s, among parishioners who previously thought they were on the same page.

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Ps 133:1). St. Mark’s is remarkable for its unity. Not that we all agree about everything, or always finish each other’s sandwiches. Sure, there are those who remain strangers to one another and even some who perhaps try to avoid eye contact during the sign of peace. But St. Mark’s has been preserved, thus far, from those factions and divisions which can so quickly spoil the good and pleasant unity that God grants to people of good will. 

Thus far. The crucible that our metro is passing through will test whether our unity is truly the fruit of the Spirit and the result of “being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil 2:2) or only a superficial unity, resulting from the lack of opportunity for underlying divisions to surface. 

I mentioned in last week’s article the disparity between the “poles” manifesting in public discourse. The issues really are complex and layered, some with no clear answers. Our faith brings to bear many principles that, on their own, seem to point in different directions. And the gravity of the situation and what’s at stake can seem to require strong convictions and immediate action from people of good will. Moreover, I think it goes without saying that the “Synod on US Immigration Enforcement” has yet to occur. So in the absence of that “encyclical,” individual Catholics have to reason through the complexity on their own… often arriving at very different conclusions… and when the time comes to act, all run in disparate directions.

Even at St. Mark’s. There are those who, rooted in an obediential respect for civil authority that is very strongly expressed in the New Testament, and perhaps with an eye to the many dangers and injustices resulting from uncontrolled immigration (for both citizen and alien), see no problem in principle with forced deportations, and point to the local government’s lack of cooperation and the virulent opposition of those working to disrupt immigration enforcement as having contributing to the dangerous tensions and violent reactions that have marred this whole matter. On the other hand, there are also those who, rooted in the just-as-Biblical concern for the poor and the stranger; who view the sudden and forced ejection of those who have tacitly been allowed to enter and integrate into our society for so many years as unjust in principle, are alarmed by indiscriminancies and excesses in the enforcement and breaches or civil liberties and the use of deadly force against protestors without sufficient cause, and therefore cry out with wounded hearts over the whole operation. 

Each of those perspectives is informed by the Catholic faith. And those who hold them are understandably upset when they turn to their fellow Catholics for solidarity and support… and discover the gulf separating them, or are scandalized by the silence of their shepherds, who seem unwilling to take the opposing stands that seem obvious to each. 

The Catholic “both/and” does not mean “each is entitled to his truth.” Much less must we content ourselves “to agree to disagree” on matters so important. A truly Catholic approach, however, is able to see the whole; to recognize the truth found in every viewpoint, and to bring them into harmony with each other, purifying those elements that are not of God, and “taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). The Church has been entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18). As current events reveal the ways in which we are not yet “one mind” about important matters, may St. Mark’s prove to be a space–so rare these days–where differing minds can meet, where people at different places on “the spectrum” can dialogue, and in which fundamental disagreements are not brushed aside or avoided altogether, but reconciled in Jesus Christ Our Lord.

From the Heart of the Shepherd: The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time