CYCLE C 20TH
1. In our readings, Jeremiah and Jesus as prophets have a major point in common. Their words spoken for Yahweh, while true, were often ‘DIVISIVE’ and ‘INFLAMMATORY’. You see, PROPHECY, was held to be a kind of an ‘Expert Opinion’. So what Prophets said had ramifications in social, political and religious circles. Prophetic practitioners were widely believed to have a special access to God’ s counsel that most anybody else did not. A Kind of …’from God’s mouth to their ear’, if you will.
2. Societies have always been divided. Look at ours. We are divided because words and ideas have power to shape and form lives. But we also have Power to resist. Some of our divisions come about for FUN reasons. And other divisions come about because something IMPORTANT to us is at stake. So it comes down to: good vs. bad, better vs. best or right vs. wrong.
-Sports divides: But for the most part we do have fun with this.
-Foods divide: You may like pork, beef, chicken or lettuce, Right?. But things get a little testy between meat eaters and die hard vegetarians. And we hear of violence that takes place between animal welfare activists and livestock or fur producers.
-Politics divides: Now here is where the lines are drawn. Democratic thought vs. Republican thought. Right vs. Left. At times you can sense the disdain or even hate for each other.
-Sociological: While Rivers, oceans, mountains divide us. Ethnicity color and sex can also divide. Those who have material goods and the those who don’t are also divided.
-Religion divides: While we know we are world divided in this area, we must realize we are a church divided. Just saying ONE WORD can get us embroil us in a heated discussion. Words like Contraception. Marriage. Sunday Mass. Abortion. In all cases someone is trying to tell others what is best.
3. Jeremiah prophetically told the people of Judah that the way they were living was wrong. Their SINS would eventually subjugate them to captivity to the Babylonians. Because of the truth that he told, he became a despised man. Especially to the rich and the ruling class, who ruled unfairly, especially over the poor.
In today’s reading, we see the Princes of the Kingdom of Judah, because they were upset with Jeremiah and his true words, TWIST and DISTORT their meaning. And they accuse him of TREASON.
-Therefore Jeremiah should be put to death.
-He is demoralizing the soldiers and the people.
-He is only interested in their ruin.
Sounds like the same problems Jesus is having in Luke’s Gospel.
4. In the Gospels of the last few weeks Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. In each we heard a part of the moral foundation he was laying for the Church. Luke provided the words and actions of Jesus as guides for the conduct of Christian Disciples. Examples: VIGILANCE, Care against GREED, How to PRAY (Our Father) and the better PORTION for a Relationship with Jesus, that Mary chose.
So what Jesus is telling us today, with regard to ALL that he has said, is that his proclamation of the Kingdom is to be a REFINING and PURFYING FIRE. And while this prophetic message is supposed to be accepted because it is the TRUTH; some will reject it because it doesn’t sound right…it doesn’t feel right…nobody else is doing it. When people are not humble enough to accept the truth, then His teachings naturally become a source of CONFLICT and DIVISION within nations, cities, families and even the church.
And the final sign of our rejection of this purification Jesus is to bring about, is His Baptism (or Catastrophic Event) of dying on the cross. And therefore the consequential division comes about as WE completely CUT ourselves off from God, as we put him on the cross again and again.
4. The Church is the recognized Prophetic leader on issues of Faith and morals in our day. She lays out for us the words and actions of Jesus to be our guide. As Catholics are called to do two things.
1st: Embrace Her teachings. Sometimes it may be easy and for others issues it may be hard. Hang in there. Get to know the reasons the church teaches the way it does. So that when we hear one of those HOT WORDS, we defend it rather than reject it.
2ndly: When others do not accept them, we are still called to extend instruction and forgiveness and reconciliation to all who reject them.
The FIRE has to run it’s course, and if we open ourselves to it, the purification will take place. If not, we will find ourselves on the wrong side of the divide.
Recent Comments