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Gospel Reflection 20070819

You'll find your life richer if you strive to do right.
"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied." (from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:3-10) Most everyone wants to do what is right. When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you need to do right—like eating when you're hungry and drinking when you're thirsty. Spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst won't lead you to the nearest drive-through, but they will push you into action. Jesus is talking about more than a generic goodness. It's more than avoiding what's wrong. It's really looking for what is best and the right way to live.

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Division – The Purpose of Jesus’ Life
August 19, 2007

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel
Lk 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”


In today’s gospel we read that Jesus said, “Do you think that I came to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, rather Division. A son will be divided against his father, a mother against her daughter.” As we read this passage I think many of us might ask, “Why would Jesus come to cause division rather than peace?” To understand His meaning we must examine our everyday lives. The young people may have experienced the following situation. You have a date, your parents expect you home by midnight but you don’t get home until 1 a.m. The next time you ask for the car they answer, “No, you cannot have the car this evening because you didn’t get home on time last week.”
What happens? You have division. As a young person you may be angry and your family is temporarily divided because you really want the car but you did not heed your parents’ wishes and so... no car. How does the child usually react? By saying, “Oh, I understand, I was late so therefore I must pay a price for my behavior?” I would say that seldom do the parents get that reaction. In reality, the child usually argues about why he or she was late, it will never happen again, you don’t understand, etc. etc. Then there may be a few days of icy silence. But, there was a rule, it was broken and the two parties are divided.
In reality, the whole purpose of Jesus’ life was “division”. He brought to the world a different concept, one with which the Jews and the Romans did not agree. He preached “change”. Then, and now, He preaches obedience, repentance, charity and love. He told the Jews the Romans and us that His Father demands we obey His Commandments. Those are not requests that are easy for us to obey. `Just as young people do not want to be deprived of the car in 2007 so the people of Jesus’ time did not want to live by His teaching. And, so, there was division.
It happened to Jeremiah. He preached repentance, denounced false piety and told the kings they would be judged, not on the grandeur of their palaces, but on their justice to the oppressed. He was thrown into a pit, a cistern, and left to die. Paul, too, preached a message that divided him from those who heard the message of Jesus. He caused a division so deep that he was martyred... he lost his life.
We face the same challenge these three men faced... are we going to follow the teachings of Jeremiah, of Jesus Christ and of Paul or will we separate and divide, ourselves from their messages? Is it fair, just and reasonable for a parent to expect a child to obey? I believe everyone here, children and adults, would agree that it is perfectly reasonable to expect to be disciplined when one disobeys. However, in real life, it is very difficult to accept that concept.
In reality, we are facing greater difficulties than did those who lived at the time of these readings. The society in which we live is more corrupt than the society in which they lived. No matter our age, teenagers, young adults, middle aged or older, our modern society exposes us to more temptations and a greater opportunity to “divide” themselves from Jesus than did the societies we hear about in today’s readings.
Stop and think. The information sources we have all indicate that the Commandments no longer mean anything. Each of us are required to make decisions. Those decisions can lead to "division". The lifestyles and conduct that our culture promotes “divide” from the teachings of Jesus Christ. But Jesus doesn’t cause the “division”! We cause the division! The Commandments of God are not going to be repealed and if the “division” is to be healed, we must divide ourselves from the modern teaching that indicate the Commandments not longer apply.
As we contemplate the words of today’s reading we must ask ourselves, “Am I dividing myself from the teachings of God and His son Jesus Christ? Do the young people here understand that their parents have the responsibility to teach them the morality given to all of us? When occasions arise in which you think, “My Mom and Dad are unreasonable,” pause a moment and ask, “What does Jesus teach us?” He teaches obedience to reasonable discipline. But, you have to accept that and not divide yourselves from the parents.
We all must examine our lives in the spirit of today’s gospel and ask, “Am I dividing myself from God’s word?” It may be actions we take or times when we do not act in charity, love of others less fortunate or we miss opportunities to be a model for others around us. But most of all, we must realize the words of Jesus apply to each of us. He came to “divide” us from the sins of the world. He came to teach us the disciple we need to follow his teachings. It is our responsibility and we must strive to follow His lead every day of our lives.
If we don’t succeed we could suffer the worst “division” possible. Our “division" from eternal salvation. THINK ABOUT IT!

The new millennium has witnessed and continues to witness much violence. Hardly any day passes that we do not hear the sad news of violent aggression and brutality unleashed against innocent people somewhere around the world. To make matters worse, perpetrators of these acts of violence often try to justify these atrocities by claiming that they are fighting a holy war in God’s name. Think of the crusades, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Today’s readings are indeed a call to war: not a war against other people but a war against sin and corruption; not a war against people we perceive as evil, but a war against the evil one, the devil. Let us listen to these words of Jesus:
Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12:51-53)
Scholars tell us that Jesus is speaking here not about the purpose of his coming but about the inevitable consequence of his coming. Jesus came to reveal the true sons and daughters of God who listen to God’s word, and the children of this world who oppose Gods design. This divides all humankind into two camps, the camp of the godly and the camp of the ungodly. There is perpetual conflict, a state of war, between these two groups as one group strives to raise the world up to God and the other to pull it down to hell. These two groups do not live in two different parts of the world, they live side by side in the same neighborhood, they live together under the same roof, and in fact the forces of good and evil often exist together in the same person.
The holy war to which Christ calls us, therefore, is not a war against people of certain nationalities or cultures, creeds or ideologies, but a war in which we first have to identify the forces for evil in our own persons and in the persons of those who are dear to us (father, son, mother, daughter, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law) and then declare an uncompromising war against these forces.
What are some of these evil forces that we are asked to war against? Well, why don’t we start with the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride (superiority complex), Covetousness (greed, seeking material prosperity at the expense of one’s soul), Lust (sexual abuse of minors, pornography, treating women as objects of pleasure), Anger (bitterness, hate, bearing grudges), Gluttony (excessive eating and drinking), Envy (self hate, rivalry), Sloth (seeking success without working for it). To these we can add the mother of all evils, injustice. If we declare war against these then we are fighting a holy war.
If we are at war then we should be prepared for some roughness. The enemy is also fighting against us and we may have to suffer some harm or hardship. God never abandons His people. Jesus, our leader in God’s holy war did not escape the suffering and death on the cross. But on the third day God raised him to life victorious. God never abandons his people. He will not abandon us if we fight His holy war — the war against evil in ourselves and in the world.

I once received a letter from a young seminarian who told of his desire to live the gospel wholeheartedly. The main barrier, he confessed, was the advice from a few elders warning him that he should not get carried away. It reminded me of the time when I was younger and had just read the Gospels seriously for the first time. There was a passion and intensity to them that could set one on fire. What a powerful vision, what a wondrous revolution the Gospels heralded.
I, too, heard the advice of prudent minds. "Don't get carried away. We don't want you going off the deep end." That was only the first time I received counsel which, though offered in charity, seemed to tame something unleashed in me whenever I read the Gospels. After all, one did not want to burn out, much less cause trouble.
But that's what the Gospels do. They start fires in us. They cause trouble. The Gospels are a pain in the neck of prudent heads and moderate minds. Jesus we just stick on a wall. We paint him pious, nice, and pretty, surely not a troublemaker or a firebrand. Or was he? "I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited... Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? The contrary is true; I have come for division." Now, of course, we know that this is not the whole story. After all, he was called the Prince of Peace, and he promised a peace that "the world cannot give."
As for causing division, why would his priestly prayer ask that we might be completely one in him and each other? Moreover, the Gospels readily provide a litany of love. The problem is, I believe, that the love and unity Christ offers are at odds with the counterfeits we coin. If Christ's peace takes hold of us, it brings an interior freedom that makes us dangerous and divisive, especially if we cannot be bought off or intimidated.
His unity is repugnant to any person or culture that demands moral accommodation as its cost. His love is obnoxious to anyone who thinks charity begins at home. His peace does not come cheap. In fact, in this matter of following Christ, even households can be divided if the price of unity is deception. Brothers and sisters, whether in blood or in community of faith, can find themselves in opposition. The command of love stokes the fire of conflict—both with others and within our hearts—over money, territory, family, and tribe. Love in itself, much more strong and abiding than a spark of quick passion, is a refining blaze of covenant and fidelity.
Peace and unity will come, not by dousing the fire of faith or declaring a false truce with evil, but by focusing our attention on the one who kindled love in the first place. "Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires… Remember him. Do not grow despondent or abandon the struggle."

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St. Joan of the Cross


(1666-1736)



An encounter with a shabby old woman many dismissed as insane prompted St. Joan to dedicate her life to the poor. For Joan, who had a reputation as a businesswoman intent on monetary success, this was a significant conversion.
Born in 1666 in Anjou, France, Joan worked in the family business—a small shop near a religious shrine—from an early age. After her parents' death she took over the shop herself. She quickly became known for her greediness and insensitivity to the beggars who often came seeking help.

That was until she was touched by the strange woman who claimed she was on intimate terms with the deity. Joan, who had always been devout, even scrupulous, became a new person. She began caring for needy children. Then the poor, elderly and sick came to her. Over time she closed the family business so she could devote herself fully to good works and penance.

She went on to foundwhat came to be known as the Congregation of St. Anne of Providence. It was then she took the religious name of Joan of the Cross. By the time of her death in 1736 she had founded 12 religious houses, hospices and schools. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1982.

Comment:

The downtown areas of most major cities hold a population of "street people." Well-dressed folks usually avoid making eye contact, probably for fear of being asked for a handout. That was Joan's attitude until the day one of them touched her heart. Most people thought the old woman was crazy, but she put Joan on the road to sainthood. Who knows what the next beggar we meet might do for us?

posted by Mike Young @ 8:50 AM