May 27, 2001

Rodney King made headlines some time ago as the recipient of a beating at the hands of members of the Los Angeles Police Department. This was a beating caught on video for the entire world to see. The incident lead to a trial of those police officers. After weeks of deliberation, a jury's decision to absolve them from blame sparked riots all across Los Angeles. It was then that Rodney King uttered those now familiar words: "Can't we all just get along?"

Unfortunately, in far too many corners of our society, we do not get along. Instead of binding together as one, we too often allow our differences to keep us apart.

There is a story of George Fox and Oliver Cromwell that is worth recalling. The matter of religion was a great barrier between them. One day, they met each other and they talked about many things. When Fox got up to go, Cromwell said: "If you and I spent one hour each day together, we would be nearer to each other. I wish no more harm to thee than my own souls!"

When Cromwell met his so-called enemy face to face, he came to realize that over and beyond their differences there was the common bond of their humanity. There was much more they shared in common.

The incident is reminiscent of an experience George Orwell had in the First World War. He came upon an enemy solider and was about to shoot him when he noticed that the enemy's pants were falling down. He couldn't fire his gun. It came to him that a man who is holding up his trousers is not a fascist. He is visibly a fellow human being caught up in the same fold as he, and seeing him as such, the compulsion to kill just was not there. Hostility and bigotry, and prejudice, three of today's main causes of sinuity, can often be eliminated by individual contact with a representative of the group we have been taught to dislike or hate. In order for the chasms between us to narrow, we need more opportunities to connect with those with whom "we do not get along."

In our Gospel today, Jesus offers a prayer for unity. He prays that we may be one as "You, Father, are in me and I in you!" Jesus was praying not for the abandonment of differences, but for those with differences to get along. His prayer was for new connections, new ways of dismantling the barriers between us, and new ways of promoting harmony and diversity.

SO THE QUESTION: WHAT WOULD YOU LIST AS SOME OF THE MAIN FEEDERS OF DISUNITY, AND SOME MAIN BARRIERS TO UNITY?

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