FORCING DOORS OR BUILD BRIDGES
There were two unmarried sisters who had such a bitter fight that they stopped speaking to each other. Unable or unwilling to leave their small home, they continued to use the same rooms and sleep in the same bedroom. A chalk line divided the sleeping area into two halves. The chalk divided rooms so that both sisters could come and go and get her own meals without trespassing on their sister's space. In the black of night, each could hear the breathing and snoring of the other. For years, they coexisted in grinding silence. Neither was willing to take the first step to reconciliation.
Then one night, a sister got up to go to the bathroom and fell, breaking her hip. The other sister awakened by the fall and the scream of pain jumped out of bed, crossed the chalk line and came to her sister's side. After a jab on why she would do such a foolish thing as trip over her own feet, the sister held her foe of the past few years until the paramedics came and carried her to the hospital.
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall told this story and added these words at the end: "The legal system can force open doors, and sometimes knock down walls, but it cannot build bridges." That is the job of Christ and the Church.