20th Sunday Year (C)
(Jeremiah
38:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53)
Dear brothers and
sisters in Christ, we have a much-ignored aspect of Jesus' teaching set before
us in our Gospel reading today, so let me recall His words for you:
Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at
all, but rather division.
And not, indeed,
any ordinary sort of division, such as east against west, black against white,
or rich against poor, for example; but the most fundamental division:
For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two and
two against three. Father will be
divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and
daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
How do these words
of Jesus fit in with all the modern cosy talk about setting aside all
differences, forgetting whatever can separate people and concentrating wholly
on being comfortably one, and reasonably happy, together? Jesus' words, of course, do not fit in with such
an attitude to life. And yet, there are very many people -- even
many Christians -- who seek to shape a world in which they hope everybody will
able to live together with anybody, in peace, pleasure and prosperity, a world
from which they want to root-out whatever differentiates, not just set it aside
as unimportant but root it out as fundamentally wrong in comparison with
the great good of human superficial oneness. They envisage a world built on and
governed by only such principles and such standards as all can readily accept
and freely agree on.
These visionaries,
however, know little about human nature and care nothing about human destiny,
and their prescription for life in modern society leads quickly into a
situation where the lowest common denominator always prevails:
ABORTION has to be
OK because many want it and most of those who don't want it are afraid of
seeming to be unkind or inconsiderate, and, of course, a silenced baby is less
of a load on one’s back than a screaming woman threatened with motherhood!;
CRIME is bad, of
course, but punishment can seem to be so unloving, indeed, as many say, at
times, so vengeful, therefore, let us tone down serious thoughts about justice,
about past and future victims, about the effective protection and authentic
good of society, and devote more – novel! -- thought and more publicly-appreciable
efforts to transform the criminal to become not, sadly, a morally better person,
but a more socially manageable and less troublesome one;
MARRIAGE between
one man and one woman is by far the best, of course, especially for the
children of such a union, but surely any sort of loving relationship has to be
regarded as wholly acceptable, because, after all, marriage does make serious demands
on the married couple, while other relationships are much easier and allow the
life-styles of those with different ideas and/or idiosyncratic psychological
make-up to appear as totally acceptable and equally commendable.
This ever-burgeoning
option for no divisions, no trouble, no distinction, is the easy, popular,
beginning of a landslide that can soon develop into a headlong and, ultimately
irresistible avalanche capable of destroying human society like the herd of Gadarene
swine in the Gospel story; for moral indifference gradually breeds citizens who
regard society as nothing more than the milieu where they can hope to find and
publicly practice their own type of personal pleasure, and make most personal
profit from contacts with others. In the
wilderness thus created, attitudes such as individual and social responsibility
and civic pride soon come to be regarded as follies of the past; whist anarchy
is seen, by a growing fringe, as the modern vision which alone can offer full
personal expression and radical human freedom for everyone.
And so, while the
doctrine of "laissez faire" as the French say, or "let things
be" as we might put it, can never, admittedly, build-up or establish a
truly human society, nevertheless, the common, man-in-the-street, understanding
of Christian charity would seem to be totally against those strange words of
Jesus:
"Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not
at all, but rather division."
Let us now face up
to this difficulty instead of trying to ignore it, and we will find that the
solution leads to a better understanding of human life and its possibilities.
The demands of
charity are real, and for Christians they are supreme, but we can never rightly
appreciate those demands until we have first come to understand the true nature
of Christian charity.
First of all, is it
always and necessarily opposed to division?
If we think of charity as just getting on with other people, then,
obviously, Christian charity as expressed in those words of Jesus is
incompatible with modern social and secular ‘oneness’. Charity, however, is not just a matter of
getting along with people: it is a supernatural gift from God, a sharing in the
love which is the very life of the God Who made us for Himself; it is the
living bond that unites Father and Son in the Holy Spirit and can transform our
fallen humanity into one capable of sharing something of Jesus’ heavenly
beatitude. Christian charity is a gift
of God, a sharing in heavenly love come down to earth, because the Father sent
His beloved Son among us, here on earth, to save us from our sins: the Son Who,
in the power of His Holy Spirit, enables us to begin to live here on earth as
children of God for a heavenly fulfilment according to principles that are divine.
Those who promote
"laissez faire" or "let things be" do not recognize, do not
acknowledge the reality of, ‘sin’ nor do
they seek to promote morality; they think only in terms of criminality and
‘political correctness’: they think that
human agreement and oneness is the all-important aim, an aim which is totally based
on human, man-made, laws and regulations.
We Christians, on the other hand, hold that "oneness in
Christ" and the promotion of God’s law which is inscribed in the very
make-up of humanity is the only possible solution for the real needs of
mankind, the only viable programme that can lead to authentic personal fulfilment
and a truly human society.
Now this
understanding of Christian charity as an anticipatory participation in divine
charity can -- under certain circumstances -- involve and even require earthly
division:
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he
who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37)
There can be times
and circumstances when we must put God first and loved-ones second: a choice that
can indeed bring about division in family life and in society. And yet, such earthly division must never be
allowed to break the rule of fraternal charity even here on earth, for whilst
Jesus unequivocally demands:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37);
He also, at the
same time, tells us that there is a second commandment which is like the first
and which demands that:
You shall love your neighbour as
yourself (Matthew 22:39).
Therefore, where father
or mother, son or daughter, would try to lead in ways that turn from God, from
Jesus' teaching, then indeed Jesus brings division, for:
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he
who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37).
In all this,
however, it is not racism -- contemporary society’s ‘bete noir’ -- or personal
ill-feeling that divides, but solely love for Jesus, love for that Jesus Who
will never allow us to forget what we owe to our heavenly Father, our earthly parents
and family, or set aside love for our neighbour. In all this, it is simply a matter of the
greater love prevailing in circumstances where a lesser love, though not
followed, is nevertheless, not to be denied.
In other words,
where love of God transcends all other loves, it can embrace and transform any
earthly divisions. Modern ideas of social
oneness, a human society without any distinctions, on the other hand, are
unable to express divine love, and without that divine content they cannot truly
express or fully promote Christian brotherly love or authentic human well-being. Because of this Christians are always obliged
to seek, first and foremost, not human oneness, but love of God.
Because of His
supreme love for the Father Jesus, to the end, evoked division:
One of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If
You are the Christ, save Yourself and us!" But the other, answering, rebuked
him saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me
when You come into Your kingdom!" And
Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you shall be with Me in
Paradise."
(Luke 23:39-43)
Jesus walked the
way of the Cross, and today there are too many Christians who fear that way,
and who consequently try to persuade themselves that they are doing right when
they distort Christian teaching in order to promote human agreement.
Jeremiah provoked
opposition and division as you heard in the first reading. In the beginning of his career as prophet of
God he had been afraid to speak divisive words, even though the words were
God's Own words. God took him the by the
scruff of his neck, so to speak, and told him (Jer.
1:17):
Therefore, prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I
command you. Do not be dismayed before their
faces, lest I dismay you before them.
In other words: ‘Be
afraid, and I will give you reason to be afraid! Now stand up prepared and ready for whatever
comes!’ Such indeed is the message many
Catholics need to hear today, that is, many of those who, from fear of human
opposition and human divisions, would rather try to water down, change,
Catholic teaching in order to accommodate modern attitudes and bring as many as
possible into the pseudo-fold of comfortable conformity. These attempts can only fail because their
promoters are seen to be both faithless and also very, very proud, since it is
God the Father alone Who brings those He has called, to one true fold of Jesus:
No one can come to Me unless the
Father Who sent Me draws him.
Our job, as
disciples of Jesus in Mother Church, is to show Jesus to the world, and for
that purpose Mother Church has been guaranteed the presence of the Holy Spirit
to lead her into all truth about Jesus and to form all men and women of good
will by His grace through her sacraments into a likeness of Jesus. The loyal handing-down of divine truth, and the
gracious lifting-up of her children as disciples of Jesus for the Father, is
the whole function and purpose of the Spirit-guided-and-endowed Mother Church
in this world; and we, her children, must never directly seek or try to promote
whatever fosters human disaffections, because Jesus has commanded us, quite
unequivocally:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself. (Matthew 22:39)
Nevertheless, on
the other hand, we are not to fear unsought divisions overmuch, because human
differences that arise out of love of God can be healed, for all men and women
of good-will, by that very love of God.
Therefore, as
disciples of Jesus, we must always bear in mind the words we heard in the
second reading:
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith Who, for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-3)
The great Greek
doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, lived in the 4th century,
and because he was famous as a preacher -- being popularly known as the
golden-tongued one (that is what Chrysostom means) -- was raised to the supreme
dignity of patriarch in the imperial city.
Nevertheless, he refused to curry favour by preaching what the emperor
and his courtiers wanted to hear, and consequently was banished, and ultimately
died in exile for His witness to Christ.
This great saint, I say, who so eminently practiced what he preached,
commenting on these words of Our Lord:
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall
it be seasoned? It is then good for
nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men, (Matthew 5:13)
says in one of his
sermons:
Jesus tells His disciples
“unless you are prepared to face up to opposition, you have been chosen in
vain.” Do not fear evil words, but do fear lest you yourselves should
share in the pretences of others, for then, “You will become like tasteless
salt; trodden under foot, and despised by everyone.” However, if you resolutely refuse to back
down before them, and then hear people speaking against you, rejoice; for this
is what salt is for, to sting the corrupt, and make them smart! Of course, they will blame you but that
won't harm you, on the contrary, it will be a testimony to your firmness.
We who are
Catholics today do not have to face up to Emperors and their cronies, as did
St. John Chrysostom, but we do face a world both fearful and hostile where
there are too many Catholics we need ‘to make smart’. For, we have been given a wonderful privilege
-- the true faith -- and we are called to be witnesses before the world to the
truth of Jesus. Let us resolve, therefore,
to show our gratitude for God's great and gracious Gift by trying to prove ourselves
more faithful to our calling: witnessing to the Faith, neither fearing
opposition nor currying favour, and loving God first and foremost at all times
and in all circumstances.
