There are times when I am celebrating daily Mass, I can drift off in thought. It mostly occurs during the readings as I mentally make last-minute adjustments in my homily. I have a theme, a reflection, and I always wonder what connections I should make with what going on in the world. I was thinking about – what seems to me – a recent uptick in the virulent and harsh commentaries online. You name the topic: health care, DACA, racism, border security, immigration, refugees, and much much more – and the dialogue (if you can call it that) is ever more vitriolic, acrimonious, rancorous, bitter, caustic, spiteful, savage, venomous, poisonous, and malicious.

It is at that thought that I heard the Reader proclaim: “…is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds, who are deprived of the truth…” (1 Tim 6)  Sadly, words for our times. But here are some better words for our times: “In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas — unity in necessary things; liberty in doubtful things; charity in all things.”