Today’s gospel is a difficult one to write on. When Jesus asks the question, “Do you think I came to establish peace on earth?” My answer is, “Um, YES, I do think you’ve come to establish peace on earth!!!” So what the heck is up with, “No, I tell you, but rather division.” Bottom line is that following Jesus requires a certain cost and that cost may separate us from people that are not willing to pay. Whenever I hear the word cost, I tend to associate it with some kind of suffering, but it really just means sacrifice or putting something of yourself in to receive something better. We can always do better and Jesus offers us the best Way, but it means leaving some things behind. When we choose His way, people will be threatened, offended, and uncomfortable with the changes in our lives that are necessary to go where He leads. This is the division that Jesus refers to and the fire that He calls down is the fire of the Holy Spirit that will eventually fall on each one of us. Fire is meant to purify, burn away the toxins, light up a space, warm and melt hardened hearts, dissolve the old to make room for the new, and to be a visible signal of power.
When Jesus says, “And how I wish it were already blazing!” He is referring to Pentecost when the Apostles received the power of the Holy Spirit to go out and do even more than Jesus did while on the earth. That same Holy Spirit is in each one of us and we have the same commissioning to do MORE than even Jesus and the Apostles. That fire IS blazing now and we just need to step into it. It will not destroy us, but hopefully it will consume us into the better Way of Jesus. This better way requires decisions that might separate us from others, but if we live a life in love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness, and self-control, people will be drawn into that fire that melts away impurities and releases the fruits of The Fire into their own lives. Our fire spreads when we live the life we’ve been called into through our own Baptism. So the division is really a setting apart that draws others into the better of God. And the better of God is where true peace resides. Stay the course and let the consuming fire set you ablaze as a beacon of the better of God. People will join us there because it is where hearts are melted and the old becomes new. It is well with my soul.
Reading 1 ROM 6:19-23
Brothers and sisters:
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature.
For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness for lawlessness,
so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
But what profit did you get then
from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God,
the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,
and its end is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature.
For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness for lawlessness,
so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
But what profit did you get then
from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God,
the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,
and its end is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6
R.(Ps 40:5) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia PHIL 3:8-9
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
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.”
“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.”
No comments:
Post a Comment