Lent Day 9… Acquiring This Sensibility That Divides Us

All cultures identify with children in a similar way. 10-year-old boys from different cultures have more in common than 30-year-olds. As we grow up, we acquire this sensibility that divides us. —Rowan Atkinson

As we grow up, we acquire this sensibility that divides us. 

There is an irony to that statement. Perhaps it is ironic because in dividing ourselves from one another, we must conclude that we have become less mature—less grown up. Or maybe it is ironic because in dividing ourselves from one another, we see that this is, in fact, not sensible.

Divisions are not a sign of maturity, but rather immaturity. 

Divisions are not evidence of sense, but rather a lack of it.

The Lord’s Prayer begins with these words: Our Father. And that Our is far-reaching. It’s not Our American Father. It’s not Our Political Party’s Father. No. That’s still too narrow, too divisive, too immature, too nonsensical.

Although we are many, we are one in Christ… and we belong to one another. —Romans 12.5

Mother Teresa said, “We have forgotten that we belong to each other.” And Father G, in his beautiful book Tattoos on the Heart, writes: “There is no ‘us and them.’ There is only ‘us.’”