We tend to blame things that we do on things we have not done. Hence I sat on a bus in London some years ago listening to someone being utterly horrible about someone sitting near them and about the driver and anyone who dared look at her, before announcing loudly ‘my chakras are not aligned properly, so you can all go to hell’ – or something similar. I do not think she knew what a chakra was, and to be fair nor do I, but blaming whatever they are on being in a foul mood seems stretching it a little.

We do tend to find excuses, or to create dualisms or divisions. So we perceive opposing forces of good and evil at work around us and blame them for anything from being short changed to being unpleasant. Human beings are seen as being made up of a body and soul working in duality, and to a great extent perceiving dualisms or divisions is probably not a wrong thing to do. However, as is often the case, taking matters to extremes leads to the breakdown of our balance, or if you like, a misalignment of body and soul.

We are today finishing the week of prayer for Christian unity. Unity is certainly seen as a virtue and a command of Christ ‘may they all be one Father as you and I are one’ . To be one is good. To be divided is bad, although in the Trinity there are here specific entities. At the same time though, it is untruthful, and therefore unhelpful, to pretend there is one church, when there is in fact, two or many. In Christian ecumenism, there is always a tension between recognising the scandal of division and valuing the Gospel work of individual churches and traditions, or pneumatologically there is value in recognising the gifts of the Spirit, the Kingship of Christ and the creative force of the Father. They are distinct but also one, and maybe a model for Christian Unity rather than pursuing one denomination which would be beige and inoffensive and we would not like it very much, because all the people who sulk when anything changes would leave and quickly form another church which would splinter and then we would be back in the same place again, looking as foolish as we do now.

This model of duality can be applied elsewhere, specifically, to popularly perceived dualisms. First we have the human anthropology of body and soul. Much traditional theology gives us the image of the human person made up of body and soul. An image that is very useful because it makes it easier to talk and distinguish between the physical and spiritual. Fair enough. However, it is not correct to think we are talking about two separate entities, that the human person is not a unity. It is important to keep in mind that the body and soul are two aspects of one unity. Then there is the popular dualism of good and evil. There are certainly some aspects of the world that we want to describe as good and others we want to see as evil. However, that is not the same as thinking that are two existing principles, one good the other evil, that are the same in nature but directly opposing in direction. Such an understanding undermines the very unity of God. Good is the force of creation. There is no force of uncreation. Existence is good. There is no thing that is non-existent. To equate evil with goodness undermines the unity and pervasiveness of goodness in creation and existence.

A further division human beings like to make is between ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’. There is a lot more to Christianity than intellectual assent. Sitting at home believing in God does not get the believer, or anybody else, anywhere. We have to be doing something as well. The thinking and the doing have to become a unity. Thinking and doing has to be become a one unified activity in such a way that the thinking and the doing become inseparable. This unity is what the theologian, Edward Schillebeeckx, calls the Christian ‘praxis’. The Christian praxis is action that redeems and saves people, bringing them to the ultimate unity with God.

We only need to look at today’s Gospel to see what that activity is. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus announces what he going to do — bring good news to the poor, free captives and the oppressed, and cure the ill. These actions are all about fulfilling people’s humanity, making them whole, and making them one. With any dualism, we have to make sure we see the unity behind it. Otherwise: we are scandalised by a divided Church rather than appreciating the Church’s achievements; we become obsessed with the body or the soul at the expense of our wholeness; we exaggerate evil and underestimate the goodness of creation; and our religion becomes reduced to thought and no redeeming action occurs. If we keep division in perspective and fully appreciate the unity around us, then Christ’s saving work will take place.