We Are Broken
As a society, I feel we are broken. We are in need of healing.
Why do I think we are broken? I see several signs of the brokenness.
We see it in heated initial responses different groups say to each other. We take offensive to many things without taking the time to really listen. We are not open to real dialogue (see my article “Seeking Real Dialogue”). We cancel out anyone we disagree with. It is difficult to bring about any changes, let alone the changes that are really needed without real dialogue. Many seem to be more interested in being right than in knowing the truth.
We see the brokenness in the divisions we see between political groups. People declare themselves right without providing a basis for their own positions.
Another sign is the blame game we play. We are more interested in blaming someone else for all the problems than in taking responsibility for our part in the problems we face in our nation. Actually, I don’t think it is just our nation.
For instance, there is war between Israel and Hamas. We thank God for the present cease-fire and we hope it becomes permanent. It is difficult to seek peace when each side does not admit its part in the conflict whose history goes much further back than Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023.
It is difficult to have real dialogue when people reject truth and embrace relativism. Different groups cannot agree on what the truth is if we don’t accept that there is truth. I am saddened at this because I believe in Jesus’ words, “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
And the last sign I will offer today is the radical individualism we see in society instead of the solidarity that Jesus calls us to when He says, “love your neighbor.” (For more on radical individualism and solidarity I recommend Kenneth Craycraft’s new book Citizens Yet Strangers: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor. 2024),
We are broken. We are in need of healing. When we hear the word healing, we probably most often first think in terms of physical healing. Physical healing is important. Jesus healed many people. For those in need of physical healing, in the Catholic Church we have the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.
However, the Anointing of the Sick is not the only Sacrament of Healing that we have. For healing our souls of sin, we also have the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we commit mortal sin, we break our relationship with our Lord. We wound our relationship with our Lord when we commit venial sins. The good news is that because Jesus died for us on the Cross, God stands ready to heal us of our sins.
Our need for healing goes beyond the healing that we all need as individuals. We are divided as a people. When I say divided, political divisions are perhaps the most visible symptoms of the brokenness, but the brokenness is more than political divisions. We need to live in solidarity with our neighbors. We need to support our neighbors. We need to love our neighbors.
The rejection of truth is part of this brokenness. Many have also lost any sense of sin. For them, it is always someone else’s fault.
We are heading towards despair. Some are already there. There is a remedy for despair. It is called hope.
Where do we turn for hope? We should be able to find some hope in each other. We look for heroes for hope (see my article “This Looks Like a Job For…”). Unfortunately, we often don’t find the hope we need in our leaders.
So where can we be sure to find hope? I invite you to think of the words of an act of contrition. “I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to sin no more.” Who is the “you” here? It is God.
When things seem impossible we need to remember Jesus’ words, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25). When we think we are incapable of fixing the brokenness in our society on our own, we are right. We can’t fix it on our own but God can. God is the ultimate source of hope. We do well to embrace our Lord’s words in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the Lord—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.”
The world needs hope. This is why Pope Francis chose “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme for our present jubilee year. With God as our hope, the only thing that stands in the way of a better future is us.
If we truly desire for the brokenness to be healed, we need to take responsibility for our part in the brokenness. We need to ask ourselves what obstacles we place between other people and us as well as what obstacles we place between God and us (see my article “Obstacles We Create”).
When I think of the obstacles we place between each other, I think about our lack of ability to see the other side’s point of view. For example, when talking about abortion, I do not understand why those who support abortion talk in terms of the woman’s right to choose. I do not argue that each person has a right to make their own choice. However, the problem of abortion for me has nothing to do with a woman’s right to choose. What makes abortion wrong is that it fails to recognize that life begins at conception. Thus, the baby in the womb has the same rights, including the right to choose as the mother. In partner with the woman’s right to choose, they add her right to privacy. I do not understand this either. The immorality of abortion is not about privacy. To claim so sounds to me like saying something is only wrong if you get caught or “what happens behind close doors is nobody else’s business.”
How are we to learn how to dialogue about the issues?
We need to reject the radical individualism plaguing our nation so we can return to solidarity with one another and with God. We need to stop seeking our own way so that we can return to being the sheep with Jesus as our shepherd. “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
The world needs “a voice of one crying out in the desert” to give us hope. Those who have forgotten and/or rejected God often look for the “voice” in political leaders. Our political leaders are human beings just like us.
People can become captivated by a charismatic speaker. Yet, being a great speaker does not give them the ability to save us. If you want inspiration, if you want real and enduring hope, then turn to the one who said and fulfills the following words, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jesus is the one who has laid his life down for us. Trust him.
Even with Jesus, sometimes our hope is strained. This is not because of anything on Jesus’ part. We strain it when we try to go our own way. There are those things that we will not understand. We need to follow the example of Job who came to realize that, as humans we are not capable of understanding everything and that we will not have all the answers (see chapters 38 and following of the Book of Job). Yet, we can have faith.
Jesus shows his perfect love for us when He sacrifices his life for us on the Cross. In this saving act He reveals his Sacred Heart to us. Are we ready and willing to give ourselves totally to his Sacred Heart?
St. Augustine is often quoted for his words to the Lord, “Our hearts are restless till they rest in you.” This world cannot give us true joy. We need to let go of worldly ways to follow Jesus as “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). The peace we are meant to have comes from Jesus.
We need to ask the Lord, “A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit” (Psalm 51:12).
I continue to read a book on the Sacred Heart Devotion. As the words for the article were coming to me, I read the below lines. As you read these words ask yourself if you are willing to make these words your own. We need them individually and as a people
I ask Thee for the grace to correct myself of that imperfection which so long has so long hindered my progress in virtue, to conquer that predominant passion which is the source of so many faults, to acquire that virtue which is so necessary for my salvation and for my perfection (Fr. John Croiset, S.J., The Devotion to the Sacred Heart: How to Practice the Sacred Heart Devotion. Translated by Fr. Patrick O’Connell, B.D. from the French of the final edition published at Lyon in 1694. Second Edition: TAN Books: Charlotte, NC. 198.).
We are broken. It is the Lord who can fix us, if we let him.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff