Homily
for August 19, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Conflict and Division
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Reading
I 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. 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 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.”
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How would you like to preach that
Gospel? Jesus asked his disciples a question. “Do you think
I have come here to establish
peace on the earth?” You think they
would have said, “Well, yes.” ‘Peace be
with you’, is how they greeted each other.
‘Shalom Aleichem.’ ‘Peace to men
of good will.’ ‘Peace is my gift to
you.’ That is not what he says
though. He says, “I have come to set the
earth on fire and how I wish it were already blazing. Do you
think I have come to establish peace
on 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. Then, of course, a
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law.” But we already knew that. Why this apparent contradiction?
We call Jesus, “The prince of peace”. So what’s he talking about?
He says, “I have come here to bring
division. I’ve come here to encourage
conflict.” What’s this about? Well, following Jesus means
we obey his
commandments. He said that very clearly
to us. He said, “If you love me…” We know he
loves us. He says, “If you love me keep my
commandments.” Elsewhere he said, “You
know it’s not those who say, ‘Lord, Lord!’ who will enter the kingdom
of heaven
but those who do the will of my Father.”
That’s the deal. That’s how we
show our love by keeping God’s commandments, especially the commandment
to love
each other. The root word of disciple is
discipline. There is a discipline of conduct involved in
being a Christ follower, a Christian.
Following Jesus has consequences.
We heard that in Jeremiah’s case.
They threw him into a muddy cistern because he spoke for God.
Paul tells us in that second reading about
the struggle that he is constantly undergoing, the struggle not to sin.
We know what Paul means, don’t we? It is an ongoing lifelong
struggle, not to
sin. We need to keep struggling. Unfortunately, many people
have a very
effective way of dealing with temptation.
They give into it immediately.
But we can’t do that. We have to
keep struggling against sin. Jesus in
the Gospel talks about family fights because of him. Jesus’ ways
are consistent and clear. The church doesn’t change. God
doesn’t change the commandments from one
generation to the next. They’re not
adapted to fit the current mores of the people.
They are written in stone.
Following Jesus does not mean taking the path of least resistance or
taking whatever path is easiest for us. Let me tell you a few stories.
There’s a “Dear Abby” column but I should
start to write a “Dear Abbot” column.
Abbot means father. By the way,
the stories I’ll tell you, you don’t know who these people are because
preachers have the right and a license to change little facts about a
story,
sometimes gender, ages, places so you know nothing. First, a young teenage girl about
Dominica’s age came to see
me. She said she was worried very much
about her grandmother. She loved her
grandmother very much and her grandmother was living in adultery with
another
man. Several years ago, she threw
grandpa out of the house. Now, she took
in this other fellow and it’s a scandal to the family. It’s a
scandal to the little community in
which they live. Mostly, she was worried
about her grandmother because she was worried about her spiritual
welfare, her
health. She said, “What should I
do?” I said, “Well, think about going
and seeing grandma and telling her that you love her very much and that
you’re
worried about her and that you think she’s doing the wrong thing here.
You’re worried about her soul. Pray before you do it. Pray
when you’re doing it and pray after you
do it.” A while later she came to see me
and I could look at her face and know it didn’t go well. I said,
“What happened?” She said, “Grandma threw me out of the
house. She said, ‘Get out! Who do you think you are telling
me how to
live?’” I said, “Is your grandma a
Christian?” She said, “She’s a great
Catholic with a statue of somebody in every room. She would never
miss mass and she’s still
receiving Holy Communion.” Somehow,
grandma has rewritten the Ten Commandments.
Conflict and division caused by Jesus
Christ. He set a fire in this family. Another case, “Dear Abbot”: I
knew a woman a while back and I met her at
Project Rachel. (Project Rachel is a
project for post-abortive men and women to try to help them heal and be
reconciled
to God and church.) A wonderful young
woman in her twenties and she had finished the program and really was
healed. She came to see me though and
she said, “I’m not quite healed. I have
a problem and it’s my father. She said,
“My father, when I became pregnant…” I think she was sixteen or
seventeen. “When I became pregnant, I went to see my dad
and my dad said, “You are going to get an abortion.” He said,
“You can’t have this baby.” She said, “Well, can we consider
adoption?” He said, “No! You can’t take nine months off
from your life
at this time because you’re pregnant. We
have plans for you for college.” I said,
“Is your dad a Christian?” She said, “Oh
yeah, a good Catholic. As a matter of
fact, he’s a very strict, conservative Catholic.” He is all those
things except in this case,
when it involves his daughter. She had
the abortion. She said, “Although, I’ve
been reconciled, my dad isn’t. I feel
some anger and some hurt. My dad almost
forced me into this but I accept responsibility but I’m worried about
him.” So I said, “Well, pray, go see
your dad and tell him you love him.” I
don’t tell anyone to go anywhere and do anything but I suggested to her.
“Tell him you love him very much and that
you’re worried about him.” She did and
when I saw her the next time I knew it went well. I could see it
on her face. She said, “Yes. He’s reconciled now also.”
She was prepared to bring conflict and
division because the truth demanded it.
God demanded it. You have your own stories, don’t you,
all of you? You could write all sorts of stories where
your Christian values or Christian values of people you know have
brought
conflict and division. What we need to
know today is that it is okay. As a
matter of fact, Jesus ordered us to do this.
There’s a sloppy notion of Christianity as some kind of “feel good”
exercise and it’s not. Sometimes, I have
seen people who are new to the church, they are on fire with the love
of God,
and they know now that they have found Jesus and everything is going to
be
great. See them two years later, more
problems than ever. Our faith doesn’t
mean a state of perpetual happiness.
There’s a deep down inside joy that comes from following Christ but
also
a lot of crosses and pain. As our young people go back to school,
especially to high
school and college, I was thinking, “What a challenge they have to
follow
Christ” because look at the world out there.
Look at what is acceptable in music, in film. You know what’s on
the Internet. I wonder if a young high school student told
her friends, “I don’t listen to that kind of disgusting music because
it’s
vulgar, filthy and denigrates women as much of that music does. I
don’t drink or use drugs because it’s my
Christian values and I want to be a virgin when I get married.”
Would she be persecuted if she said those
things? Probably. As a matter of fact, undoubtedly;
although
many of our young people say just those things.
I was talking to a family after mass.
I remember when I was seventeen.
These kids today, many of them are heroic in their Christian ways and
I’m really impressed with them because it takes courage. Jesus brings the fire of truth to a
world of deception, a
fire to test and illuminate and purify and burns us. He says, “I
don’t give peace as the world
gives peace.” To Jesus peace is not the
absence of conflict it is the “Shalom of God”, the inside knowledge
that all is
right between you and God. Don’t forget
the Gospel is posed to us by Jesus. The question we have today is, “How
will
you live, according to His way or your way?”
Salvation or death? About five or
six times when planning a funeral, the family has asked that at the
funeral we
play, I Did It My Way.
And I say, “No,
no, absolutely, positively not.” They
say, “But he loved that song.” “No. No because it’s the
antithesis of the way we
are to live.” We’re supposed to do it
His way, not my way. Peter Crete, the
author, says that. However, “I
Did It My Way" is the theme song of hell.” So if you die,
when you die and when you wake
up in that other place, if you hear this song ask for a do-over. I hope that we hear another song, Amazing Grace.