Crossing the Field: The Unity and Charity Our World Needs
True unity begins in Jesus Christ and comes alive through sacrificial love, service and a willingness to bring the Gospel beyond the walls of our churches into a world in need.
Two brothers inherit the family farm and split it in half. One is married with eight children, the other, a bachelor. At harvest time, the married brother realizes his family will support him, but his brother is alone. He decides to secretly put some of his grain in his brother’s barn under the cover of night.
At the same time, the bachelor brother looks to his brother’s large family and sees a greater need. Without realizing what his brother plans to do, he plans to secretly put some of his grain in his brother’s barn early in the morning.
So they went for years, until one day, one brother left late and the other left early. They met at the property line, realized what each had been doing, dropped their wheelbarrows and embraced in love.
I apologize if you’ve heard me tell that story before, but it’s a powerful one for me, especially having grown up in Western Nebraska. I love it because it shows us two things that give me hope for our Church and our country: unity and charity.
We live in an age plagued by disagreement and vitriol, without dialogue but with plenty of shouting. But these two brothers and the Gospel itself teach us what it means to live united even in diverse circumstances. The brothers were different, having different experiences and needs, yet they came together in love for one another. The apostles, too, came from various backgrounds, yet they united in love for the Lord and one another.
Since his election, Pope Leo XIV has providentially called us to a supernatural unity, reminding us that “In the One Christ, we are One.” Only in Jesus Christ can we find the powerful unity that St. Paul talks about in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus Christ makes us one. How? Through an abiding charity, love for God and neighbor. Out of a deep love, the two brothers give sacrificially to help each other. In the world’s economy, what they do makes no sense. But in the divine economy, it makes the most sense.
The early Church lived this powerfully. In fact, an early non-Christian reported to the Roman emperor that Christians behaved strangely: they loved one another, even sacrificially, by caring for widows, strangers, the incarcerated and the poor.
“This is really a new kind of person,” Aristides wrote to Hadrian. “There is something divine in them.”
I’m grateful to know so many of you already living this kind of charitable unity, giving of yourselves out of love for God and neighbor. Our archdiocese has so many apostolates and ministries, so many lay people, religious and clergy on fire with apostolic energy. That is a gift from God.
I invite you to consider taking that apostolic energy outside the walls of our churches, schools and ministries to find the least, the littlest, the lost and the last wherever they may be. I invite you to enter secular spaces and conversations with the light and love of the Gospel. You might consider how God is inviting you to serve your community in faith, whether in your town hall or local school board, on your streets or in your neighborhoods.
The brothers didn’t wait to care for each other; they saw the need and crossed the field. St. Teresa of Avila tells us that we are Christ’s hands and feet in this world. What might he desire to do for others through us?
In the words of the Prayer of St. Francis, named for the saint whose death 800 years ago we commemorate this month, may we seek to understand more than to be understood, to love more than to be loved. May we sow love where there is hatred, faith where there is doubt, hope where there is despair.
God bless you.
