For
the last several weeks, we have been hearing from the 12th chapter
of Luke’s Gospel. In
that chapter, Jesus is attracting huge crowds who are very interested in what
he has to say. Some
in the crowds are his followers and disciples.
They take his teachings into their hearts, reflecting upon and
meditating upon his words. They want to
learn and grow from what he is teaching them. However, there are others such as the scribes, temple officials, and the Pharisees
who are interested in what he says, but they’re also concerned about
criticizing Jesus and making life difficult for him. Today’s Gospel is just 5 short verses, but it certainly gives us a lot to think
about. And it is certainly not an easy
Gospel to understand. As
disciples of Christ ourselves, we know Jesus as the Prince of Peace, the Son of
God who proclaims God’s kingdom of justice and mercy. But,
in our Gospel today, Jesus says that he has come to set the earth on fire. Why
would he say such a thing? He
says that he has come to divide, rather than unite and reconcile. Isn’t
there enough division and turmoil and discord in our world already? How could this be a part of Christ’s Good
News?
I
thought back to the spring before I left for my missionary work, back in 1992. I
stayed with my dad in the Los Angeles area for a year just after my mom passed
away, helping him get readjusted while I worked there for that year. He was suffering from the beginnings of
Alzheimer’s disease at the time. On an
April morning, I had a work meeting right in downtown Los Angeles. As I was driving back that afternoon to
Orange County, I was hearing news that an acquittal verdict had been reached
for the police officers involved in the Rodney King case. There
was a lot of tension brewing in the city. When
I arrived home, I walked in as my two sisters where glued to the TV set, seeing
scenes of violence and looting as riots erupted all over Los Angeles, including
the very area where I had just been several hours earlier. It
took many weeks for the anger and violence and tension to start settling
down. The
division that Jesus talks about in today’s Gospel seemed to be playing out in the
streets of southern California where I grew up as a teenager. Just
this week, as I was writing this homily, the front page of our Tupelo newspaper
featured an interview with Mayor Jason Shelton, talking about the need for
rebuilding community trust and community engagement in our city of Tupelo. It seems like our world has become more and
more divided and polarized. But is that
what Jesus really wants?
Sometimes we have to confront the reality around us head on in order to
eventually solve any problems or crises or tensions that exist. That is what Jesus is talking about when he
says that he has come to create division, creating situations where even
households are divided. We can take the easy way out in life and in
our journey of faith, avoiding those things that are divisive and maintaining a
faith that is insular, safe, and secure. We can want a faith that makes us feel good
about ourselves and that comforts us and entertains us. But I
don’t think that is the option Jesus wants us to take in our lives of faith. Jesus
wants us to be bold about living out our faith, courageous about proclaiming
our faith even when some may find that truth offensive or politically incorrect. Sure,
I could get up here each weekend and preach a homily that makes you warm and
fuzzy inside, a homily that does not touch upon any controversial or
complicated subjects. But
truly, is Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior wanting us to ignore those harsh
realities that confront us as individuals and as a society? Is he wanting us to put our heads in the sand
and not challenge the status quo or
dialogue with the world around us? Think
of those people in our Church and in our society who caused division while
drawing attention in their society to truths that needed to be confronted. I think of St Teresa of Avila and St Francis
of Assisi in the reform of the Church; Martin Luther King Jr in the Civil
rights movement; Oscar Romero and Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa in the way we
look at the poor and the oppressed; Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela in speaking
out against the discrimination and racism that existed in the world around
them. All of these remarkable people of
faith brought about division and controversy and strong feelings by being prophets
and righting wrongs. If we
are going to follow Jesus in proclaiming his Good News and living out our
faith, perhaps some of our friends or even family members will think we have
gone off the deep and have gone to far. They may become angry at us or deny that they
know us. They may criticize us and
bad-mouth us. Sometimes we will cause division when we proclaim the truths of our faith, when
we proclaim the unconditional and unbounded love that God has for all.
As
disciples of Christ, we have God’s Kingdom proclaimed to us both as a gift and
as a challenge. We
are to perceive the world differently because of who we are as Christ’s
disciples. When
Christ’s peace is proclaimed to us, it is a peace that rests in our relationship
with God, a peace that encourages us to stand up for justice and the truth. When
I arrived in Jackson in my first assignment as a priest, several parishioners
approached me about going with them to the abortion clinic on State Street just
down the street from St Richard. We
ended up going almost every week to pray the rosary in front of the clinic to
be witnesses of the Gospel of Life that is a fundamental belief of our Catholic
faith. It
shocked me to see the anger and hatred that was directed to us as we prayed
each week. I knew that not everyone
would agree with our position, but I thought they would at least respect our
freedom of speech. One Saturday morning,
when I represented our diocese at an ecumenical prayer service in front of the
clinic, we were harassed and shouted at by the police, as they threatened to
tow away our cars or to arrest us if we violated any minor details of the
permit we had to hold this public prayer service. Such
treatment shocked me and spoke deeply to me. But
Jesus’ proclamation in today’s Gospel is not to inspire fear in us. Boldly
living out of faith is not to frighten us off. Rather, it is to inspire us to truly reflect
upon what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
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