A Very difficult Gospel

20^th Sunday of Ordinary Time

On first reading of the Gospel today you would be forgiven to think that these words seem to contradict the Gospel message. Surely you may ask, the Gospel is one of peace and love for all people and here we have something really quite different. I think because it is so difficult it would be worth unpacking it a little.

There three challenging statement which we can identify today “I have come to bring fire” When we look at the symbol of fire in the Gospel we may think of the story of Moses and the burning bush. This was a fire that did not consume the tree but was one that is the fire of God’s presence. We see this again in the New Testament with the tongues of fire on the heads of the disciples. So it is a fire that cleanses and purifies and give the light of God to all people.

The next statement that Jesus says is “There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great my distress is till it is over!”

This does not mean that Jesus is going to be re baptised. Baptism implies total immersion. In the early Church this was the norm and you would be buried with Christ. We are immersed in his suffering and death on the way to resurrection. He is therefore talking of his own death and resurrection. He knows that we too have to go through our own death and pain to get to resurrection.

The last statement is probably the most challenging “I have come to bring peace but division” 

When I was working at Topshop there were many people who told me I was a fool to belong to a religion or follow it because all it seemed to do was bring war and destruction we only have to look at the events in the middle east and Northern Ireland to see this statement as true.

When we look at the Gospel message we can understandably be confused after all Jesus brings peace. Look at the words of the last supper and the Sermon on the Mount “Blessed are the peacemakers. Jesus even says “By this will all know that you are my disciples that you love one another” So what could Jesus have possibly meant by these words.

In many parts of the world being a Christian and the message of Christ can threaten governments and we only have to think of the influence that Pope John Paul II had in the fall of Communism.  And yet this can also happen in family groups where a member of the family decides to become a Christian. And strangely enough this division can come in many forms even in the parish community where people have their own ideas and impose them on others without listening. 

The Christian message is one of peace harmony and compassion for everyone. It brings people together no matter who we are. But it also challenges injustice and the dignity of the human person.

Religion then should never divide it is false religion that deliberately divide. Religion that harms kills and causes suffering is not true.

So being a true Christian in defending truth, justice and human dignity can naturally meet opposition. So the peacemaker and the persecuted in the name of the Gospel are both blessed and hold a tension between and strangely go together.