Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Readings: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53

I have come to bring fire to the earth

The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are a challenge to us dear friends: they speak of pain, they speak of division, they speak of struggle. It is interesting to note that, Jesus, who is called as ‘Prince of Peace’ is speaking of division. How could this be? What does it mean to bring division? What is this ‘fire’ Jesus is speaking about?

To understand this we need to look at the historical situation of Jesus’ time and the time after His ascension. We ourselves know that the way of life of Jesus himself was a cause of division among his followers. He constantly challenged the legalistic world view of the scribes and Pharisees and preached love. He showed how God cares for the neglected ones and reached out to all those who were on the fringes of the society. He called for mercy and not sacrifice. Somehow this approach of mercy did not make any sense to the legalistic world view of His time and the authorities made sure that He is eliminated. And that is what they did, they managed to silence Jesus by subjecting Him to the cruellest punishment that was available those days.

After Jesus’ ascension, especially after the Pentecost, the disciples of Jesus had spread across Jerusalem and some of them as far as Rome. There was a constant beginning and development of Christian communities and entry of new converts into this new way of life. It was remarkable to note that many of these converts were gentiles and probably were worshipping other gods. When they were accepted into these Christian communities there was a bit of dissension among the Jewish Christians regarding the law of purity as these new gentile converts wouldn’t keep those traditions and laws. Along with these issues, even the families of these Gentiles were also in opposition to this new way of life as it took away their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, in-laws from them. So dear friends there was a lot of confusion and division among the people and all this division and confusion was because of Jesus. He was the cause of this division as he had said.

But is ‘Jesus’ really a cause of division, or is it that ‘we’ cannot accept his way of life? I feel it is the latter,. It is us who have difficulty in accepting His ‘way’. Jesus did not bring division, but because of the way he lived, it caused a stir among the people. He challenged our way of life: he spoke about love, reached out to the needy, he spoke of mercy, and most of all proclaimed the good news that “God Loves Us.” When I do not accept it, I divide myself away from Jesus. When I am comfortable in my cosy little corner of legalistic world, I divide away from Jesus. When I put out the fire of love I divide myself away from the engulfing fire of the Holy Spirit. When I do not challenge the views of the world, when I go on living a selfish life, I divide myself away from Jesus.

Dear friends, we need to be baptised in Jesus’ baptism, the baptism of “dying” to our selfishness and indifference and “rising” into the life and fullness of the resurrected Christ. This is the baptism Jesus is talking about, this is the fire Jesus is telling about, this is the life Jesus is promising about. Let us today be divided against all those things which divide us from Jesus and unite into Jesus who brings unity to my life.