TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

[cappie]

Jesus said in the Gospel today:  I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! He’s speaking to his disciples, the ones who would have to take up his mission and message and make it known to the rest of the world. Can you hear his frustration? What stress I am under until it is completed. Jesus knew he would not be among the people much longer. Those religious leaders of the time, who had lost a real sense of faithfulness, were already wondering how to get rid of him. Their fire had long ago gone out and their hearts were set on their own glory and not the glory of God.

 Jesus threw some harsh words at them. “Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”   He then gives a list of all the people who will be divided against each other.

 We need to remember that the Gospel of Luke was not written for our ears. It was written for that time and for those who were just learning about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. The gospel writer was most likely addressing a gentile audience in a time when people who turned from their pagan religions to become followers of Jesus would most likely have caused division even in their own families. We know historically about the Christian persecutions that happened in those times, and we need to understand that this gospel was written to establish Jesus as Messiah, to show that he has authority over all things, and that his teachings and message were for all God’s people, Jew and gentile alike.

Jesus wasn’t saying that he wanted division to come to God’s people, he was just saying that he knew that there would be those who would turn their backs not only on him, but on those who followed him. Jesus died so that we might have life and have it to the fullest, remember. Jesus’ frustration may well have been that he dearly wanted God’s people to live out the two great commandments, to be happy and at peace, to care for the poor and needy; and as he didn’t see it happening, he cried out in anger.

That said, don’t get comfortable. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to say he might just have to say the same thing. Aren’t households divided against each other still? Sometimes those households are groups of people or nations. Has peace really come to the world yet? Even in places where peace seems to reign on the surface, selfishness, hate, division, cruelty, and ignorance still  exist among God’s people. We are often no better than the religious leaders of Jesus’ time who imposed impossible laws on the people but did not follow those laws themselves.

So, what do we do? Is there hope? After all the centuries that have passed from Jesus’ time to ours, shouldn’t we have learned something?

Yes, we should. And fortunately, yes, we have.

Look at the letter to the Hebrews this week and last week. The author sings the praise of those who did get the message and acted on it. Look at the list of what these people did: through faith. These were people in both the Old and New Testaments God’s people, full of the fire of God’s spirit. Women were praised for their faithfulness. Martyrs were praised for their courage. Those who were ill-treated and hated for their passion for God were praised.

We don’t have to think very hard to name people in our own time we can add to this list. There are of course, the named ones: Oscar Romero, Mary MacKillop, Mother Teresa, Edith Stein. But there are also the ones who aren’t famous or canonised, those people who have been our mentors and teachers, those who have taught us to be faithful. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who help us grasp Jesus’ message in many ways. We, too, should count ourselves part of that great cloud,  we are bearers of God to the world with every breath we take.

So, we should,   “keep running steadily in the race we have started. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the jo which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne” where we too will sit one day.