2019년 8월 18일 연중 제20주일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
예레미야서 38,4-6.8-10
그 무렵 4 대신들이 임금에게 말하였다. “예레미야는 마땅히 사형을 받아야 합니다. 그가 이따위 말을 하여, 도성에 남은 군인들과 온 백성의 사기를 떨어뜨리고 있습니다. 사실 이자는 이 백성의 안녕이 아니라 오히려 재앙을 구하고 있습니다.”
5 이에 치드키야 임금은 “자, 그의 목숨이 그대들의 손에 달려 있소. 이 임금은 그대들의 말에 어찌할 수가 없구려.” 하고 말하였다. 6 그들은 예레미야를 붙잡아 경비대 울안에 있는 말키야 왕자의 저수 동굴에 집어넣었다. 그들은 예레미야를 밧줄로 묶어 저수 동굴에 내려 보냈는데, 그곳에는 물은 없고 진흙만 있어서 그는 진흙 속에 빠졌다.
8 에벳 멜렉은 왕궁에서 나와 임금에게 가서 말하였다.
9 “저의 주군이신 임금님, 저 사람들이 예레미야 예언자에게 한 일은 모두 악한 짓입니다. 그들이 그를 저수 동굴에 던져 넣었으니, 그는 거기에서 굶어 죽을 것입니다. 이제 도성에는 더 이상 빵이 없습니다.”
10 그러자 임금이 에티오피아 사람 에벳 멜렉에게 명령하였다. “여기 있는 사람들 가운데 서른 명을 데리고 가서, 예레미야 예언자가 죽기 전에 그를 저수 동굴에서 꺼내어라.”
제2독서
히브리서 12,1-4
형 제 여러분, 1 이렇게 많은 증인들이 우리를 구름처럼 에워싸고 있으니, 우리도 온갖 짐과 그토록 쉽게 달라붙는 죄를 벗어 버리고, 우리가 달려야 할 길을 꾸준히 달려갑시다. 2 그러면서 우리 믿음의 영도자이시며 완성자이신 예수님을 바라봅시다. 그분께서는 당신 앞에 놓인 기쁨을 내다보시면서, 부끄러움도 아랑곳하지 않으시고 십자가를 견디어 내시어, 하느님의 어좌 오른쪽에 앉으셨습니다.
3 죄인들의 그러한 적대 행위를 견디어 내신 분을 생각해 보십시오. 그러면 낙심하여 지쳐 버리는 일이 없을 것입니다. 4 여러분은 죄에 맞서 싸우면서 아직 피를 흘리며 죽는 데까지 이르지는 않았습니다.
복음
루카12,49-53
그때에 예수님께서 제자들에게 말씀하셨다.
49 “나는 세상에 불을 지르러 왔다. 그 불이 이미 타올랐으면 얼마나 좋으랴? 50 내가 받아야 하는 세례가 있다. 이 일이 다 이루어질 때까지 내가 얼마나 짓눌릴 것인가?
51 내가 세상에 평화를 주러 왔다고 생각하느냐? 아니다. 내가 너희에게 말한다. 오히려 분열을 일으키러 왔다.
52 이제부터는 한 집안의 다섯 식구가 서로 갈라져, 세 사람이 두 사람에게 맞서고 두 사람이 세 사람에게 맞설 것이다. 53 아버지가 아들에게, 아들이 아버지에게, 어머니가 딸에게, 딸이 어머니에게, 시어머니가 며느리에게, 며느리가 시어머니에게 맞서 갈라지게 될 것이다.”
August 18, 2019
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Jer 38:4-6, 8-10
In those days, the princes said to the king:
“Jeremiah ought to be put to death;
he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city,
and all the people, by speaking such things to them;
he is not interested in the welfare of our people,
but in their ruin.”
King Zedekiah answered: “He is in your power”;
for the king could do nothing with them.
And so they took Jeremiah
and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah,
which was in the quarters of the guard,
letting him down with ropes.
There was no water in the cistern, only mud,
and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Ebed-melech, a court official,
went there from the palace and said to him:
“My lord king,
these men have been at fault
in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah,
casting him into the cistern.
He will die of famine on the spot,
for there is no more food in the city.”
Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite
to take three men along with him,
and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before
he should die.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 40:2, 3, 4, 18
R. (14b) Lord, come to my aid!
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me.
R. Lord, come to my aid!
The LORD heard my cry.
He drew me out of the pit of destruction,
out of the mud of the swamp;
he set my feet upon a crag;
he made firm my steps.
R. Lord, come to my aid!
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
Many shall look on in awe
and trust in the LORD.
R. Lord, come to my aid!
Though I am afflicted and poor,
yet the LORD thinks of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, hold not back!
R. Lord, come to my aid!
Reading II
Heb 12:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Gospel
Lk 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.”
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
«Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth?»
Fr. Isidre SALUDES i Rebull
(Alforja, Tarragona, Spain)
Today, -from Jesus' very lips- we can hear the frightening avowal: «I have come to bring fire upon the earth» (Lk 12:49); «Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you» (Lk 12:51). Being faithful to God entails division. For truth is opposed to lies and deception; the spirit of charity is the opposite of a selfish spirit; justice is the opposite of injustice...
In the world -and inside us- there is a mixture of good and bad; and we must take sides, must take an option, while being conscious that faithfulness is "uncomfortable". It seems far easier to compromise, but it is certainly far less evangelical.
We would like to have "the Gospels" and "a Jesus" tailored to measure and going by our individual taste and passions. But we must convince ourselves that Christian life is not just a simple "routine", a matter of "just keep going", without a constant desire for improvement and perfection. Benedict XVI maintains that «Jesus Christ is not just a private conviction or an abstract idea, but a real person, whose becoming part of human history is capable of renewing the life of every man and woman».
The supreme model is Jesus (we must "stare at Him fixedly", especially when in trouble or if persecuted). He voluntarily accepted the ordeal of the Cross in order to restore our freedom and recuperate our happiness: «In his crucified flesh, God's freedom and our human freedom met definitively in an inviolable, eternally valid pact» (Benedict XVI). If we get our mind stay put on Jesus we shall never lose heart. His sacrifice represents the contrary to the spiritual lack of enthusiasm, which so often engulfs us.
Loyalty requires courage and ascetical fight. Sin and evil are constantly tempting us, and this is why a courageous fight and effort along with our participation in the Passion of Jesus Christ are a peremptory requirement. Hating sin is not easy. The kingdom of Heaven demands efforts, fight and violence upon us, and the violent take it by force (cf. Mt 11:12).
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
The Jesus of today’s gospel is a far cry from the smiling, laughing Jesus that greeted me in many church basements growing up. He is also a far cry from the “family values” Jesus that dominates the discourse of so much modern Christianity, especially in my native America. I even find myself reconsidering a Jesuit motto displayed prominently on our campus here at Creighton – namely Ignatius of Loyola’s counsel to Francis Xavier to “go set the world on fire.” If “setting the world on fire” means “dividing families,” then do we really want to preach on this gospel?
If nothing else, today’s readings remind us that the gospel is not about “niceness.” In fact, God’s prophetic call disrupts the social status quo and can even put us at odds with those closest to us. Jeremiah had been an advisor to King Zedekiah. Yet after just a little lobbying, the king leaves him to his tormentors, largely because of Jeremiah’s unpopular predictions of Jerusalem’s impending fall to Babylon. Like Jeremiah, the Psalmist finds himself in the “pit of destruction” and the “mud of the swamp,” crying out to God in classic lament form: “Lord, come to my aid! O my God, hold not back!” In a similar context of collective suffering, the writer of Hebrews exhorts his community to persevere in running the race of faith, even to the point of shedding blood. In Luke, the refining fire of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God is burning a path right through the nuclear family.
I have recently returned to the USA after spending a year in Uganda, one of the major Christian centers in Africa. The heroes of the local Catholic faith – pictured in nearly every church I visited throughout the country – are the “Uganda Martyrs.” These 22 Catholic teenagers and young adults – along with 23 Anglicans – were killed in 1886 by their king, Kabaka Mwanga, during the initial phase of Christian evangelization. They were brutally tortured and burned on pyres, yet they sang and prayed as they died, echoing Hebrews’ call to “endure the cross for the sake of the joy that lay before them.” After their deaths, tens of thousands of Ugandans embraced the Christian faith; by 1910 Uganda had one of the largest Christian populations in Africa. on their feast day of June 3, my children and I joined two million other pilgrims from across East Africa at their execution site at Namugongo, celebrating the fruits of their costly fidelity.
We should not pray for family division. Nor should we wish for persecution or death. But may we not fear the repercussions of running where God calls us, knowing that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
TRUTH SOMETIMES HURTS | ||
| Jeremiah " 'ought to be put to death,' the princes said to the king; 'he demoralizes the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them.' " �Jeremiah 38:4 | ||
The Lord commands us to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). If we fail to try to dissuade others from their wicked conduct, God holds us responsible for their deaths (Ez 3:18). We must be men and women of the truth. However, in a world of lies, the truth and those who speak it are rejected. For example, Jeremiah spoke the truth and was thrown into a muddy cistern where he was left to starve (Jer 38:6, 9). Often when we speak the truth, our families will reject us. "A household of five will be divided three against two and two against three" (Lk 12:52). Therefore, we naturally don't want to speak the truth, although the Lord holds us responsible to do so. The only Way out of this dilemma is Jesus, Who is not only truthful but the Truth Himself (Jn 14:6). He is the Truth Who sets us free (Jn 8:32). In Jesus, in the Truth, we will speak and live the truth, no matter if we have to die for the truth (see Sir 4:28). Our love for Jesus will make us true. Because God is Love (1 Jn 4:16), we have the courage to live for God, the Truth. Speak and do the truth in love (Eph 4:15). | ||
| Prayer: Father, in the name of Jesus, I receive the Spirit of Truth (see Jn 14:17). | ||
| Promise: "For the sake of the joy which lay before Him He endured the cross, heedless of its shame. He has taken His seat at the right of the throne of God. Remember how He endured the opposition of sinners; hence do not grow despondent or abandon the struggle. In your fight against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood." —Heb 12:2-4 | ||
| Praise: Praise You, risen Jesus, our Redeemer! You atoned for our sins and paid our infinite debt of sin. Glory to You forever. |
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
"I came to cast fire upon the earth"
Do you want to be on fire for God? Jesus shocked his disciples when he declared that he would cast fire and cause division rather than peace upon the earth. What kind of fire did Jesus have in mind here?
The fire of God's purifying love and cleansing word
The image of fire in biblical times was often associated with God and with his action in the world and in the lives of his people. God sometimes manifested his presence by use of fire, such as God's revelation to Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness which was not consumed by the flames (Exodus 3:2). God assured the Hebrew people of his continual presence, guidance, and protection for them through the wilderness for forty years with the pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day (Exodus 13:21-22). The prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to reveal God's presence and power and to purify the people of false idols (1 Kings 18:36-39). The image of fire was also used as a sign of God's glory (Ezekiel 1:4, 13) and holiness (Deuteronomy 4:24), his protective presence (2 Kings 6:17), and his righteous judgment (Zechariah 13:9) and holy wrath against sin (Isaiah 66:15-16).
Fire is also a sign and symbol of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11-12 and Luke 3:16-17). When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples at Pentecost "tongues of fire" appeared above their heads (Acts 2:3). We can see from both the Old and New Testament Scriptures that God's fire purifies and cleanses to make us clean (sins washed away) and holy (fit to offer him acceptable praise and worship), and it inspires a reverent fear (awe in God's presence) and respect (obeying and giving God his due) for God and for his holy word.
Loyalty unites - division separates
Why did Jesus link fire from heaven with costly division on the earth? Did he expect his followers to take his statement of "father against son and son against father" and "mother against daughter and daughter against mother" literally? Or was he intentionally using a figure of speech to emphasize the choice and cost of following him above all else? Jesus used a typical Hebrew hyperbole (a figure of speech which uses strong language and exaggeration for emphasis) to drive home an important lesson. We often do the same when we want to emphasize something very strongly. Jesus' hyperbole, however, did contain a real warning that the Gospel message does have serious consequences for our lives.
When Jesus spoke about division within families he likely had in mind the prophecy of Micah: a man's enemies are the men of his own household (Micah 7:6). The essence of Christianity is loyalty to Jesus Christ - the Son of God and Savior of the world - a loyalty that takes precedence over every other relationship. The love of God compels us to choose who will be first in our lives. To place any relationship (or anything else) above God is a form of idolatry.
Who do you love first and foremost?
Jesus challenges his disciples to examine who they love first and foremost. A true disciple loves God above all else and is willing to forsake all for Jesus Christ. Jesus insists that his disciples give him the loyalty which is only due to God, a loyalty which is higher than spouse or kin. It is possible that family and friends can become our enemies if the thought of them keeps us from doing what we know God wants us to do. Does the love of Jesus Christ compel you to put God first in all you do (2 Corinthians 5:14)?
The Gospel message is good news for those who seek pardon, peace, and the abundant life which God offers us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus offers true freedom to those who believe in him - freedom from slavery to sin, Satan, and the oppressive forces of hatred and evil that can destroy body, mind, and spirit. Do you listen to the voice of your Savior and trust in his word? Commit your ways to him, obey his word, and you will find true peace, joy, and happiness in the Lord your God.
"Lord Jesus, may the fire of your love consume me and transform my life that I may truly desire nothing more than life with you. Fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit that I may always seek to please you and do your will."
Psalm 40:1-4, 17
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods!
17 As for me, I am poor and needy; but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The fire of the Gospel and being baptized in the Holy Spirit, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)
"We affirm that the fire that Christ sent out is for humanity's salvation and profit. May God grant that all our hearts be full of this. The fire is the saving message of the Gospel and the power of its commandments. We were cold and dead because of sin and in ignorance of him who by nature is truly God. The gospel ignites all of us on earth to a life of piety and makes us fervent in spirit, according to the ｅxpression of blessed Paul (Romans 12:11). Besides this, we are also made partakers of the Holy Spirit, who is like fire within us. We have been baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit. We have learned the way from what Christ says to us. Listen to his words: 'Truly I say to you, that except a man be born of water and spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God' (John 3:5). It is the divinely inspired Scripture's custom to give the name of fire sometimes to the divine and sacred words and to the efficacy and power which is by the Holy Spirit by which we are made fervent in spirit." (excerpt from COMMENTARY on LUKE, HOMILY 94)
http://www.homilies.net/
20 Ordinary Time
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C
Luke 12, 49-53
A priest was getting on a bus. Somehow his shoe came off and fell into the street. Since he could not retrieve it, he took off the second one. He threw it out the window in the direction of the other one. To a puzzled looking passenger, he said, "The fellow who finds the first shoe now will have a good pair to walk about in."
I have just returned from retreat. Hopefully I am filled with grace. But certainly I am filled with gossip from my fellow priests. They were filled with information about new assignments from our bishop. The shocker is that a certified firebrand among the brethern has been sent to a very proper and wealthy parish as pastor. The priest in question has been lining up on the side of the poor, disenfranchised, and the oppressed since he was priested a quarter of a century ago. Wherever he goes, fire follows him. He has all the scars, many of them quite glorious and even enviable, that go with such a career.
Everyone at the retreat had an opinion pro and con on the appointment. Most dared not speak them publicly since the bishop himself was present. But the one point on which all agreed is that the parish will become a different creation. Given his track record, the new man will most assuredly bring fire to the parish in question. The fox-hunting set there will never be the same again. These aristocrats may well come to feel that they are among the hunted.
But today's Gospel tells us that fire is precisely what the Teacher brought to the earth. Therefore, can we fault a priest if he himself brings that same torch to a small corner of the Teacher's Church? Do you really think the Christ would fault him especially since he is but following His example? Quite obviously our bishop does not fault him.
Could it be that the bishop is telling his priests, religious, and laity that it is we who are lukewarm Christians? Might he be telegraphing us the signal that what the Church needs is more people like the pastor under discussion? I believe the answer to both questions is a resounding affirmative. And this affirmation would come even though the bishop might not agree with all the tactics of the pastor in the past.
Admittedly this appointment will appear strange to those among us who, in Joseph Donder's words, "are accustomed to depicting Jesus beautifully, with large eyes, a shapely beard, carefully dressed in soft colors, with a sweet glow all over Him."
After all, we are living out our lives when we drink our coffee without caffeine, our milk with little or no fat, and our beer with few calories and less taste. No doubt some industrious scientist, tomorrow's Nobel Prize laureate, is already working to develop a sizzling porterhouse steak without meat. And, if developed, we will eat it.
So, what is more natural to us than to swear allegiance to a counterfeit Jesus! This would be a Christ who gives us comfort but demands little in return. A Teacher who is always sending us pious bromides but never speaks to us about sin. A Master who is always swooping down to pick us up but who never asks His troops to carry Him.
Could it be our watered down Christianity is the very element which is keeping our seminaries and convents empty? Our young people may very well feel that any resemblance between the Christ of today's Gospel and the Christ their parish is selling is purely coincidental.
Perhaps then it is time for us to cease attempting, as James Carrol puts it so upsettingly, "to get the prophet out of our city so we can honor him. Or onto a cross so we can love him."
"Words, words, I'm sick of words," shouted an exasperated Eliza Doolittle of "My Fair Lady" fame about her patronizing Henry Higgins. The time for words were done. So, she sang in a piercing voice, "Show me." Is this not what Luke's Christ is saying to each of us in today's powerful Gospel?
"Christians," said Albert Camus, "should get away from abstraction and confront the bloodstained face history has taken on today." When people are troubled, we cry to Christ, "Why aren't you there?" He angrily replies to us, "Why aren't you?"
Frjoeshomilies.net
20 Ordinary Time
Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time: The Cost of Discipleship
Today's readings are difficult, very difficult. They are difficult because they present the cost of discipleship.
We began with the plight of Jeremiah who was persecuted because he proclaimed the Truth of God. It would have been so much easier for Jeremiah to have kept his prophecy to himself. But as he would protest in chapter 20:
You seduced me, LORD, and I let myself be seduced; you were too strong for me, and you prevailed.
All day long I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage I proclaim;
The word of the LORD has brought me
reproach and derision all day long.
I say I will not mention him,
I will no longer speak in his name.
But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding back, I cannot!
Yes, I hear the whisperings of many:
"Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!”
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
"Perhaps he can be tricked; then we will prevail,
and take our revenge on him.”
Horrible things happened to Jeremiah, including his being thrown into the cistern as we heard today. But Jeremiah would not reject the burning of God's truth within his bones. It was the cost of discipleship.
The readings then present the Letter to the Hebrews. The author tells these second and third generation Christians to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and persevere in running the race set before them. Jesus embraced the cross, endured the opposition of sinners and was rewarded by his Father. He did this so we can join Him in enduring the wrath of sinners. The reading also scolds these Christians who were complaining that Christianity was too demanding. It reminds them that they have not yet had to shed their blood. Perhaps they would have to. There is no limit to the cost discipleship imposes on us.
And finally we come to that most difficult Gospel. It starts off wonderfully, as the Lord says, "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” But then the Lord proclaims what the fire of His Love will bring:
"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,,,,,” and so forth.
Jesus tells his disciples, and tells us that there will be a cost of discipleship.
This is not what most people, including me, want to hear. We don't want to hear that choosing Christ will put our lives so at odds with those around us that we will be persecuted, and mocked. We want our religion to be easy. We don't want to have to pay a price for living our faith.
But we have to.
In his great book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrick Bonhoeffer makes a distinction between what he calls cheap grace and costly grace. He is not using the term grace as we Catholics do, as something coming from God. He is using it as another word for religion. So I'll insert religion in paraphrasing Bonhoeffer. He says that "cheap religion is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap religion is a religion without discipleship, a religion without the cross, a religion without Jesus Christ." Cheap religion, Bonhoeffer says, is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship.”
"In contrast to cheap religion, costly religion confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him.” He goes on to say, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Because we have chosen Christ, we are mocked for believing in God. The pseudo intellectuals of our day treat us as though we are children and disparage the truths of our faith as children's tales. Because we have chosen Christ we are reduced by others to being Jesus freaks. This is part of the cost of discipleship.
Because we have chosen Christ we are confronted with difficult decisions that we need to embrace to be whom we claim to be, People of God. For example: Catholics are pro-life and anti-abortion. This position is easy to hold until your seventeen year old daughter becomes pregnant, or your best friend, or you. Then it becomes a matter of loving that baby more than your plans for the future, or the plans of you had for your daughter or your best friend. The Catholic who says, "I will choose love rather than death,” is embracing the cost of discipleship.
Another example: it is easy to fight against substance abuse until you find yourself as one of the few around you who isn't getting drunk, smoking pot or taking some other drug. It is costly to turn away from bad situations and be scorned by others. "You think you are so much better than us,” the in-crowd scoffs when we turn away from their immorality. This is just another one of the costs of discipleship.
We embrace the cost of discipleship when you in your marriages, and we priests and religious in our vocations remain committed to our vows in difficult times as well as in easy times. There are no perfect marriages because a marriage is the union of two, normal yet imperfect people. The cost of discipleship demands that you accept each other's limitations and love your spouse even during those days that you don't particularly like him or her. The cost of discipleship demands that those of us who have made vows to God keep those vows even when, especially when, we feel overwhelmed by the needs of our people as well as our own personal wants.
We embrace the cost of discipleship because we are more concerned with others than ourselves. We are more concerned with their eternal salvation than with anything they can do to us in this life.
In the beginning of today's Gospel Jesus says, "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” The fire of God's love. That is what we are about. We know we are loved. We know that God wants others to join us in His Love. If we are truly going to be his disciples, then we will happily join the Lord in setting the world on fire with love. And we will do this no matter what personal cost this entails: For the cost of discipleship is temporary, but the Treasure of God's Love is forever.
Stmaryvalleybloom.org
* Available in Spanish - see Spanish Homilies
20 Ordinary Time
The Key to Reaching Our Goal
(August 18, 2019)
Bottom line: We look back with gratitude and we look forward with trust. That's the key to reaching our goal.
I will give this homily in English, but begin with a Spanish summary of the main point:
En el evangelio Jesus mira atras y adelante. Es un buen evangelio para nuestra misa bilingue anual. Miramos atras con gratitud y adelante con confianza. Es la clave para alcanzar nuestra meta:"correr con perseverancia la carrera...fija la miranda en Jesus".
We have a good Gospel as we gather for our annual bilingual Mass and parish picnic. The Gospel both looks back and looks forward.
Jesus speaks about how he wants to "set the earth on fire" and about the "baptism with which I must be baptized". This looks back to when John baptized Jesus and spoke about the "baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire". The Gospel also looks forward to Pentecost when Jesus will send tongues of fire on the Apostles. With that fire they baptized some three thousand people. (Acts 2:41)
So baptism and fire - good themes as we celebrate an all-parish Mass and enjoy a picnic. These themes that we see in today's Gospel help us look back and look forward.
I am now in my 11th year as your pastor, your spiritual father. We have a lot of memories. Some of my favorite center on baptism: those wonderful young families who bring their children for the sacrament - and the adults who after a time of preparation, take the step of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist. Some are obviously on fire with their faith in Jesus. Others seem more like embers that need some gentle tending.
We live in a world that wants to scatter those embers of faith, even to douse them. That's why it's good to come together in an event like this. If you pull an ember out of a fire it dies quickly but if you bring it back, it will burst into flame. Then it gives off warmth and light. Jesus can use that person to set fire on the earth.
So today we do come together. We look back in gratitude. Sure we've had moments of pain and stress. In them all Jesus has something for us. We are grateful we belong to Jesus and to each other.
And we look forward. People have asked me how long I will be at St. Mary of the Valley. I say the Lord has given me ten good years here. I'm praying for another decade - or two!
Who knows what tomorrow will bring? only God. Jesus had a baptism with which he would be baptized. He's referring to his cross, his passion. You and I also face the cross. We can run, but we can't hide. Whatever comes we know Jesus has gone before us.
So today we look back with gratitude and we look forward with trust. That's the key to reaching our goal: gratitude and trust. With them we can do what our reading from Hebrews says, "persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus."
Alexmcallister.co.uk
20 Ordinary Time
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
At first glance the extract from St Luke's Gospel set before us today is probably seen by many as rather distressing and difficult. Quite naturally we want our families to be united and we also believe that Jesus wants the same thing for us. And so to hear him saying that he has not come to bring peace on earth but rather division and that from now on families will be divided three against two, two against three, we find quite difficult and contradictory.
Surely Jesus has come to unite the human race under the fatherhood of God. He wants all to be saved and all to be one. And this is certainly so. You can open the Gospels at any page you like and you will find reference after reference to precisely this aim.
So, what is all this talk about division really about? It is certainly in God's overall plan for the world to draw all humanity together and so to establish a new world —the Kingdom— in which the values of unity, peace and justice are paramount. However, this is not to be established by force but only by consent.
Entry into the Kingdom of God will only be through our own free will. No one can be forced to accept the Gospel message and indeed there are many in the world today who do not accept it and many who if they do not openly reject the Gospel are certainly quite indifferent to the message it contains.
There are all kinds of reasons why people choose to reject the Gospel. Some have concluded that belief in God and an afterlife is just ‘pie in the sky when you die'. They think that the reason we Christians believe in God is because we are self-deluded and afraid to think that with our death everything will simply be over for us. They think that we spend all our energies trying to accumulate heavenly brownie points in the hope of some unspecified reward in the afterlife.
Others have never really heard or properly understood the Gospel message. Quite a few are simply stumped by the problem of evil; they cannot believe in a God who allows innocent people to suffer unnecessarily. This question is always a difficult one. How is it that a supposedly good God can allow evil in the world?
It certainly is a very complicated question and one has to begin by distinguishing between two evils. The evil caused by us human beings and the evil effects of bad things happening in the world through natural processes such as earthquakes on the one hand and illnesses such as cancer on the other.
God can hardly be considered responsible for the bad things done by a Josef Stalin or a Pol-Pot and their henchmen or even for the smaller misdeeds carried out by the likes of you and me. The only way he can be assigned any responsibility in this regard is because he gave us free will and many of us have abused it. Yet despite all the suffering that it has caused no one in their right mind would want to live a life without a free will.
As far as natural disasters and illnesses go, the world has its natural processes and these very things are what make it on the whole such a congenial place for humanity. Without the wind and the snows and the periodic droughts and earthquakes the world simply would not be the place it is. Change these and you change the very nature of the world and you could well end up making it a more hostile place than it is already.
And if we are to exclude illness from the bargain then are we to live forever? Every organism eventually comes to an end one way or the other—deterioration is the reverse side of the growth that brings us into being and enables us to thrive in the first place.
The bottom line in all this is, of course, suffering. We simply do not like to experience pain ourselves and, while we can at times consider that it might be justified as a punishment, we don't like to experience it when we are innocent of blame. And especially we don't understand how the very young or elderly have to suffer when we regard them as guiltless.
The assumption behind all this is that suffering has no meaning. And that is the sticking point for many who find it hard to believe in God. However, the only thing that can make any sense of suffering is that it does actually have a meaning. This is one of the most important truths of the Gospel—suffering is redemptive.
It is through the suffering of Christ on the Cross that we are saved from our transgressions. Christ gave his life so that we might return to a right relationship with God, so that we might be enabled to live a new kind of life with him. He made this sacrifice for us this out of love.
The God we believe in is not a callous and aloof kind of God, one who is indifferent to our sufferings. No, the God we believe in is a suffering God; a God who loves us deeply and who experiences the pains this brings.
As we have seen, not everybody understands this. Not everybody appreciates the full message of the Gospel. Not everybody has achieved this insight about the true nature of God.
And the meaning of today's Gospel text is not that Christ deliberately wants to bring division and disunity to our families. It is not that he wants to set one against the other. Indeed, he wants the very opposite of this. But unfortunately, not everyone will accept the Gospel and without a doubt some will reject it entirely and perhaps even violently.
The paradox is that the greatest message of peace and unity ever known can frequently cause conflict and disunity. These things are of course very hard to deal with in the family. It is distressing when there are great ideological differences and fundamental disagreements about what is really important in life.
But faith is not a requirement for family living. And faith must never be used in a coercive way otherwise it becomes a complete contradiction of itself. What must be paramount in family living is not acceptance of this or that set of dogmas but the values upon which those doctrines are based. And the most important of these is charity.
Our families may be utterly divided on grounds of religion or more commonly between belief in God and disbelief in God, but they should not be divided in charity and love for one another. When faith comes before love then the only word to describe the result is bigotry.
Even as he speaks about these divisions, Christ's zeal for the Kingdom is not diminished. He knows that the only thing which will bring lasting peace is the sacrifice he must make on the Cross and he is eager for it to happen. He knows it will mean extreme pain and suffering but he knows too that it will be entirely worth the sacrifice.
More Homilies
August 14, 2016 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
