August 14th 2022.  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

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. God’s word is not something that is supposed to make us feel comfortable. It  is something that should detach us from our own interests and consume  us interiorly like a fire.

In today’s readings we find a common thread: the importance of detaching ourselves from our truths to embrace His truth. In the First Reading, Jeremiah is put to death because the King does not want to hear God’s truth.  The King is seeking a truth that pleases him and the people. When God speaks to us, he is not trying to please us. Rather, he wants his Word to become our reality, our truth. In the second reading, we are encouraged to persevere in our faith, not to be discouraged. As we see in the Gospel, Jesus wants our faith to burn vividly. There is a tendency to think of Christianity as a relaxing way of being, to think it as a religion that promotes calmness and quietens our passions. But in reality Jesus was not a calm person… he was passionate and full of fire. We are called to follow him in his passionate conviction, as we can see from the first two readings.

 

2. We are called to live lives that are driven by fire and conviction, to battle to seek out and appreciate the beautiful mystery of every day

If a man marries a woman in order to have an easy life, the marriage will not be a happy one. He should everyday be striving to conquer the wife over and over again through passion, initiatives, creativity, etc.. We cannot go through life just surviving day after day. We have to find the beauty in everything we do, we need to search for the mystery of everything. We need to be on the battleground and fight every single day. Take the saints for example. They were not quiet people that hid in a corner. No, they are people full of initiative and creativity. They were so passionate that often they were considered annoying by the people of their time. They were an embarrassment  because they kept challenging others through their disconcerting acts of charity.

 

3. Jesus brings division to families in the sense of demanding that we mature and live our faith as he wishes us to live it, not according to the often worldly demands of our families.

This is what we are called to be… we need to be on fire. In the Gospel, Jesus says that he is bringing division and that even families will be divided. Yes, because, just as the early Christians and so many saints had to decide to detach themselves from their parents’ ways of being, so we need to grow up and mature as well. We need to become adults in our faith. We can’t always try to please our parents and siblings, and live according to their ways. We need to grow up and realize we have only one Father who is in heaven and we need to do whatever it takes to put our lives on the same track as that of Jesus. Our life is something beautiful, so we must try every day to receive all the grace that God has in store for us.