Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10
In 597 B.C., Babylon defeated Jerusalem and thousands of Jewish leaders and citizens were taken into exile. The prophet Jeremiah was among those left behind. When he preached trust in God rather than armed revolution, the people considered him a traitor.
Hebrews 12:1-4
Commonly referred to as a letter, Hebrews is really a lengthy sermon that encourages people to remain faithful in difficult times. In the previous section, the author cited Old Testament witnesses who had done just that. In this week’s reading, the author now points out the greatest example of fidelity.
Luke 12:49-53
Bishop Untener’s Homily
"Hard Sayings"
I remember when, some years back, this same Gospel was the Sunday reading. I had a Saturday evening Mass at a parish, and that Saturday was also a holy day – the feast of the Assumption. When I came into the sacristy the pastor asked if I was going to do the readings of the Sunday or the readings of the Assumption. I said, "I was planning on doing the Assumption." He said, "Good, because I never did like that Gospel for this Sunday."
A lot of us feel that way. It’s no one’s favorite. But, we are a "full Gospel Church." We don’t simply pick and choose the ones we like. We have set readings and work our way through all the Gospels including the "hard sayings" of Jesus.
This passage occurs at about the mid point of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus has begun his journey to Jerusalem where he will die, and the journey will last for about 10 chapters. At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel the angels sang at his birth, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests." Now Jesus says, "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division."
A lot had happened since the angels sang those words. Jesus came "to set the earth on fire," to show us a new way to live, a way that would bring all of us and all creation to the destiny for which God created all people and all things. It started well, but then there was opposition and conflict, and Jesus, as a human being began to realize that, like his cousin John the Baptist, he could be killed. In this passage he speaks of that conflict, and of his death – referring to it as a "baptism with which I must be baptized." Jesus begins to talk about how his teachings will cause division among people, even among close friends, even families.
I don’t enjoy hearing these words. I like the other parts of the Gospel where Jesus heals a leper, a blind man, raises up a widow’s only son. I like the parts where he feeds the hungry multitude, where people thank him and praise him.
But we can’t have just those parts. We are a "full Gospel Church."
Christianity Isn’t "Private"
Here’s what it comes down to. Christianity isn’t "private." There is a tendency to keep it that way, but that’s not the way it is. To be a Christian, to be a disciple of the Lord, is a way of life, and it enters into every compartment of our life. It isn’t a hobby, a specialty that touches only our private life. It affects the way we see everything. It affects the way we act in every part of our life.
To live that way of life usually doesn’t cause conflict. It is a way of life that shines with kindness, forgiveness, concern for the poor, the weak, those who are left out. In most of Luke’s Gospel there is no conflict. The people love Jesus, and that is what Luke tries to stress: If you knew this man Jesus, really knew him, you would love him.
But Luke tells the truth. There is also conflict. Herod, for one, wants to kill Jesus. The religious leaders plot to kill him. Judas, one of Jesus’ own select group of Twelve, will betray him.
If we live to the hilt this way of life, we will sometimes encounter conflict. What we believe will seem offensive to others. This way of life isn’t confined to our own "private" life. When we take seriously the way Jesus lived and taught us to live, we will meet up with issues that have to do with the poor – which means economic issues. It will have to do with the way we treat our enemies – which means war. It will have to do with issues of human life – which means abortion at one end, and euthanasia at the other. It will have to do with the way we treat any human being – which means, in our day, minorities, women. It will have to do with the multiplication of weapons of destruction – nuclear arms, guns. It will have to do with everything.
And, though most people don’t enjoy conflict, conflict will inevitably come – unless we keep our way of life secret. But Christianity can never be private. It is public.
Christian Government vs. Democracy
There were times in our history when we resolved this problem by taking over. There have been Christian Empires, Christian states. But that doesn’t work. In the 2nd Vatican Council we declared the principle of religious freedom. We don’t want to force nations, through secular power, to follow this way of life. We believe in religious freedom.
The Church has taken its stand on democracy, and we believe in it. We ask only the freedom to speak and live our way of life. But this brings conflict – among friends, even among family members.
The response of democratic political systems is to say, "Then keep your religion private." But our way of life cannot be private. We are not a select group who keeps this way of life to itself. We are trying to "set the earth on fire." We have a way of life that we want others to know about, a way of life that brings all people and all things to the destiny for which God created them. We have a story to tell, and we will tell it. We will live it. And it goes no more easily for us than it did for Jesus. There will be conflict.
We don’t want to use force. We only want the freedom to speak, the freedom to live this way of life. But it will never be private. Because we believe that it was meant for all people, all places.
Mother Teresa and Archbishop Romero
Mother Teresa lived this way of life, and it did not cause conflict. She picked up the dying and the dead from the streets of Bombay, and everyone loved her. She took seriously the teaching of Jesus toward the poor and those left out.
Archbishop Romero played a different role. He was the Archbishop of San Salvador and he saw the way the poor and the powerless were being treated, and he spoke out. He was from a wealthy background, and he was by nature a conservative person, but he took seriously the way of life Jesus taught, and he spoke out. It wasn’t for him a private matter. He spoke publicly, with regular radio broadcasts.
And the military shot him dead while he was saying Mass.
Archbishop Dom Helder is another example. He was in Recife, Brazil. He once said, "When I fed the poor they called me a saint. When I started asking why so many people were poor, they called me a communist."
St. Francis Borgia, Pigeon
We’re celebrating today the 75th anniversary of this church building. If Christianity were private, we wouldn’t need church buildings. We’d simply pray to Jesus privately and keep it all to ourselves.
But this is not a private way of life. It touches every compartment of our lives. So we try to live it everywhere – not only in our home, but in our job, in our social life, in our civic life. That’s not an easy thing to do. So, we come together, as the early Christians did, a small minority in the face of pagan empires. We come together to support one another, to absorb the strength of others who believe as we do, to extend a hand of peace to those who, whatever our ethnic our social differences, share these same beliefs.
Most of all, we come together to listen together to the Word of God, and then to bring to the altar our money, and bread and wine which represents our lives and the whole world – to bring all of this to the altar and place it in the Lord’s hands, and with Him to lift it up to God, and ask that God bring all of us, all people, all things, to the destiny for which God created them.
We commit ourselves to this way of life. We commit ourselves to follow the Lord. We say, "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever. Amen."
We are grateful to the people who, for 75 years, have done that in this church building. And we take more seriously our call to continue that tradition, to "set the earth on fire" in our own time, and to pass it on, so that God who has begun this great work in us, will sustain it along the way, and bring it to completion.
Originally given on August 19, 2001