August 18^th 2019.  Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   Luke 12,49-53

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL   Luke 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."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In Sunday’s Gospel passage, Jesus says something surprising. He has come to the world, not to bring peace, but division! Hold on a minute, isn’t Jesus supposed to be the prince of peace? But there are different kinds of peace! There is the peace of Christ, and then there is the peace that comes from avoiding struggle, avoiding problems, avoiding growth; the peace of self-satisfaction and the peace of a well-fed ego. If we think we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without confronting our ambiguities and our superficiality, then we need to think again! If we believe that we can become children of God while remaining enslaved to the things of this world, then we are sadly mistaken! Jesus comes to light a fire in the world. That fire is his passion in which he is immersed in the non-love and violence of this world. On the cross, he becomes the light of the world, to free us from our darkness and our ambiguities. And he calls us to conform ourselves to him, to battle against our inner contradictions. How can a man love his wife for all of his life if he does not engage in this battle against his own mediocrity and superficiality? How can he be a good father to his children if he does not struggle against his own selfishness? Some gurus claim that inner peace is a good sign, but peace is not always a mark of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit prompts a holy anxiety within us that prompts us to turn away from ourselves and back to God. How many people have turned back to the Church and the sacraments because of this sacred inner disquiet! Jesus comes to bring fire to our lives, a fire that purifies us and makes us children of his Father. Baptism means “immersion”. We who are baptized are called to be immersed in the Paschal event of Christ’s self-effacing love so that we leave our old lives behind and receive a new kind of life – the life of the child of God.

Jesus comes to bring fire to the world, to purify us, to turn us back to what matters and away from our ambiguities, selfishness, compromises and worldly fixations

"Do you think I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but division". These are paradoxical but necessary words. Life is often ambiguous and confused, frequently fixated with what is unworthy, and often inattentive to what is precious. We need to distinguish between what matters and what does not matter. We need a parameter of evaluation. In the Gospel of Jesus, this parameter arrives! "I have come to put fire on the earth, and how much I would like it to be already lit!" Fire is destructive, but it purifies things. In fact, the word "purify" comes from the Greek word for “fire”. "I have a baptism in which I will be baptized, and how distressed I am until it is completed!" "Baptism" in Greek means "immersion". We know what Jesus is talking about. The fire that will be lit is his Passion, when he will be immersed in the darkness of the non-love and violence of this world. He will feel all the anguish of Gethsemane and he will shine on the cross during a midday eclipse, remaining the only light in the world. He does this in order to free us from the ambiguity in which we tend to wallow.

If we are to have the fullness of life, then the substitutes for real love must be rooted out of our lives. Our ambiguities and superficiality must be combatted if we are to be truly free

The fire that Jesus is talking about is his way of giving life, of loving and forgiving that stands in absolute contrast to our mediocrities. Too often, we are content with surrogates of love, with substitutes that are not genuine. Living by grace as children of God brings with it a lucidity, a fire that shows up what is trivial and superficial within us. We need to be engaged in this inner struggle. How can a husband love his wife all his life if he is not constantly engaged in the struggle to be liberated from his ambiguities? How can he be a good father to his children if he doesn't battle within his heart to be ever more free from himself?

Peace is not always a mark of the Holy Spirit. There is also the peace that comes from avoiding problems or from hypocrisy. The Holy Spirit often makes us feel restless in order to lead us to a better place.

There are some popular “masters” of spirituality who say: "If you are at peace then you are doing God's will for sure". What ignorance! This Gospel passage says just the opposite. Peace by itself means nothing. There is the peace of Christ, but there is also that which comes from hypocrisy or through the avoidance of problematic people. Avoiding problems brings peace, but this is not God’s way. It is merely a way of defending one’s own comfort zone. We all tend to seek confirmation whenever we are in the wrong. And somewhere we will find something or someone who will prove us right. And then we're at “peace”. But it is not the peace of Christ! On the contrary, the action of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the one who is on the wrong path is precisely to prompt restlessness. Very often it is a feeling of dissatisfaction with oneself that brings people back to Christ. How many times we meet people who have returned to the Church and to the sacraments because of a holy discomfort they had with the way of life they were conducting.

A holy disquiet prompts us to enter the inner battle that helps us to become children of God

If I am called to follow Christ, this puts me against the popular current of superficiality and worldliness. How could it be otherwise? But we often try to avoid this battle. This Sunday's Gospel calls us to a holy anxiety, an anxiety that does not assuage our consciences if we are in error. A sacred disquiet that makes us grow, that helps us to become children of God rather than slaves of this world.