Democrat, Republican, or Jesus: Who are you with? Homily for Sunday, January 22, 2023

For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you. I mean that each of you is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Is Christ divided? It is as if the apostle Paul was writing his letter to us today, and not to the Corinthians centuries ago. Increasingly we are divided. Increasingly we view ourselves first as on this team or that team, and not on the team of Jesus. Our political alliances can seem to be the way we view our faith, and not our relationship with Jesus and His Church. Or, even in the Church, we can see ourselves on Team John Paul or Team Benedict or Team Francis, when the truth is we are all on Team Jesus. While there are truths worth fighting for, we do not do so first because we want our team to win. We do so because in working for the truth we are drawn closer to Jesus. We can also see our parish as better than another, or this type of Catholic better than another type of Catholic. We can pit ourselves against each other in an attempt to gain superiority. But if in doing so we forget where it is our true allegiance should be, we fail. Whatever other teams we may think we are on, there is no team more superior than that of Team Christ.