Thursday 32nd week in ordinary time "Lk 17:20-25" "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." And he said to the disciples, "The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, 'Lo, there!' or 'Lo, here!' Do not go, do not follow them...But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." We are coming close to the end of the liturgical year. During these days the Gospel of the Mass will be reminding us of the Second Coming of Our Lord and describes some of the things that will happen beforehand. One of them is the confusion caused by false prophets. The devil is an expert liar who tries to sow confusion among Jesus' disciples. In a transatlantic sailing race one team employed the strategy of pretending to be their opponents' shore team, sending them misleading information on their radios. The ploy worked, since the other boats naturally followed their instructions and found themselves thoroughly lost. But the following year something very different happened. The teams didn't trust any radio instructions and so chose not to follow any...so they got lost again! The devil does the same: he spends most of his energy sowing disunity and mistrust in the Church, mistrust in the Pope for 'something' he 'is reported' to have said; mistrust in that priest because he did something wrong once, mistrust in that Catholic institution or society because one of its members misbehaved. The devil loves those doubts which he sows abundantly among Christians. But let's keep it clearly in mind, and also spread the word, that we can't fight effectively if we are divided. Our Lord predicted that many people would come and mislead His disciples. That happens every day in some media. But as St John Henry Newman wrote, "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." If ever we see difficulties amongst some Christians, we shouldn't distrust the Church. People may make mistakes, but God knows what He is doing. Mary, Mother of the Church, may I be an instrument of unity.