Jer 38: 4-6, 8-10; Heb 12: 1-4; Lk 12: 49-53 God sends His prophets to give
the world His message in every century. Oscar Romero, Blessed Mother Teresa, Pope
John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer,
Dom Helder Camara, Maura Clark, Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Jeanne Donovan, and Ella
Baker were all twentieth century prophets who had the courage of their Christian convictions
to follow Jesus and proclaim his undiluted message which cast fire on earth and caused
healthy division in the society as today’s gospel points out. In 1980, in the midst
of a U.S.-funded genocidal war against the so-called leftist rebels in El Salvador,
Archbishop Oscar Romero who sided with the poor, exploited farm workers, declared:
“If they kill all your priests and the bishop too, each one of you must become God's
microphone, each one of you must become a prophet." "I do not believe in death without
resurrection." "If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people."
Amid overarching violence, Romero wrote to President Jimmy Carter pleading with him
to cease sending military aid to the brutal military regime because, he wrote, "it
is being used to repress my people." The U.S. sent $1.5 million in aid every day
for 12 years. Archbishop Romero’s letter went unheeded. Two months later he was
assassinated. Ending a long homily addressed to the pro-government land owners and
peasants and the military and broadcast throughout the country, his voice rose to
breaking, "Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasants .
. . No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God.”
There was thunderous applause; he was inviting the army to mutiny. Then his voice
burst, "In the name of God then, in the name of this suffering people I ask you, I
beg you, I command you in the name of God: stop the repression." Oscar Romero gave
his last homily on March 24, moments before a sharpshooter felled him at the altar
of a hospital chapel. Reflecting on the day’s scripture, he had said, "One must not
love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history
demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives." In an interview
as he was flying to Brazil in May, 2007 Pope Benedict told the reporters, “Romero
as a person merits beatification.” In July 2007, the new Salvadoran conservative
government said it would formally request the Vatican to beatify Romero although it
will not accept responsibility for his slaying. Today’s readings remind us that the
Church needs prophets like Romero and cautions contemporary prophets that their course
will not be easy. The central theme of today’s readings is that we should courageously
live out our religioius convictions and principles in our lives, as Jeremiah and Jesus
did theirs, even if doing so should result in our martyrdom and turn society upside
down. If no one is ever offended by the quality of our commitment to Christ, that
commitment may not be authentic, and if our individual and communal living of the
good news casts no fire and causes no division, then perhaps we are practicing “inoffensive
Christianity." Jeremiah, in our First Reading, is presented as experiencing
the consequences of the burning word of God within him. Jeremiah's preaching divided
the city and incited such opposition that people sought his death. He showed the
courage of his prophetic conviction by telling the king that he had to surrender to
the mighty army of Babylonian empire to save Israel. The result was that Jeremiah
was thrown into a deep, muddy cistern to die for his "treason." Standing in this prophetic
tradition, Paul, in the second reading, challenges the Judeo-Christians to
stand firm in their faith in Jesus, ignoring the ostracism imposed on them by their
own former Jewish community. Jesus, too, in today’s gospel, preaches the word
of God which continues to divide families, a word which would ultimately lead to his
death. The fire Jesus came to bring is the fire of love and the fire of hope. The
disruption, division and revolution Jesus and his true followers cause in society
by the fire of sacrificial love and the fire of justice is necessary to re-set what's
fractured, put right what's dislocated, cleanse what's infected. In other words,
the curative pain caused by Jesus’ ideas and ideals is necessary for the establishment
of real shalom of God. Even though Jesus brings a sword and causes division, he is
the bringer of true and lasting peace. In pursuing his mission, Jesus brings division
because some follow him and others oppose him. We must make a decision to follow him
or not, to share his "baptism" or not. This choice can result in division, even within
families. First reading, : The first reading warms us up to hear where Jesus
speaks with prophetic bluntness about how his mission will divide those who accept
him from those who don't. The prophet Jeremiah lived from about 650 B.C. to perhaps
580 B.C. It was during this period that Babylon, becoming the supreme power in Mesopotamia,
demanded tribute from all the smaller kingdoms, including Judah. While the princes
urged King Zedekiah, to seek military help from Egypt against Babylon, the Lord God,
through His prophet Jeremiah, told them to pay the tribute to avoid a greater evil.
Jeremiah had been predicting the impending destruction of Jerusalem as a judgment
from YHWH because most of the kings of Judah had fallen further and further away from
God and from their religion, and because they had entered into unholy political alignment
with neighboring countries, instead of trusting in their God. The prophet’s death
sentence described in the first reading occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by
the Babylonians about 587 B.C. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonian army,
the Lord God, through Jeremiah, had told the king and the military leaders to surrender
and pay tribute to the Babylonians. That way the king might save his life and the
lives of his people. But Jeremiah sounded unpatriotic and even seditious, defeatist
and treasonable to the military leaders who complained to King Zedekiah. The king
turned Jeremiah over to them, and they put him into a dry cistern with fairly deep
mud at the bottom to die. Jeremiah was saved by the sympathy of an Ethiopian courtier
named Ebed-melech who evidently held a position of considerable authority at the royal
court. Since the king did not listen to God’s counsel given by His prophet, Babylon
captured and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 and took all the able-bodied citizens to Babylon
as prisoners. The cost of following God’s word, experienced by Jeremiah as a life
so marked by suffering and opposition that he cursed the day he was born (20:14),
points to the division Jesus brings (today’s gospel). Second Reading, :Paul
wrote this letter to the Judeo-Christians who had been rejected by their fellow Jews,
kicked out of synagogue and cut off from family and old friends. Separated from the
comforting rituals and institutions they had known, these folks needed their faith
bolstered. Hence, Paul praised a long list of faithful Jews from the past, particularly
Abraham, detailing some of the difficulties they faced. Those heroic figures are the
great "cloud of witnesses" mentioned in today's passage. The author wanted his Judeo-Christians
(the Hebrews), to think of themselves as athletes in a race in a stadium, where their
ancestors of faith would be spectators, surrounding them and cheering them on, because
their descendants were now running the same race they had run in their day. These
ancestors were “witnesses” to the power of faith to endure against every temptation
to apostasy. Paul asked the Hebrew Christians to run the race, keeping their eyes
fixed on Jesus the “leader and perfecter of our faith.” In his earthly life, Jesus
was the pioneer because he initiated the way of faith—the way through suffering to
glory (v. 2)—and its perfecter because he completed it, thus enabling believers to
run the same race, through suffering to glory. We, too, are called to do our best
until our great run for the faith is crowned with victory. Today’s gospel passage
consists of two sections: in the first section (vv. 49-50) Jesus speaks of his divine
destiny to endure suffering, and in the second section (vv. 51-53) he prophesies the
breakup of families resulting from his message. Jesus explains his divine destiny
by highlighting his role of “setting the earth on fire” and being “baptized” in the
waters of suffering. The images of fire and baptism refer to his mission, both in
terms of the cost that it will exact from him and the decision it will require of
people. “I have to 'set the earth on fire.'" In the Bible, fire is sometimes symbolic
of purification (for example, Num 31:23; Ezek 22:19-22), and, more often, is associated
with God’s judgment (for example, Judith 16:17; Isaiah 66:16; Amos 7:4; 2 Pet 3:7).
The image of fire is also used to symbolize God's glory (Ezekiel 1:4, 13), His protective
presence (2 Kings 6:17), His holiness (Deut. 4:24), His righteous judgment (Zechariah
13:9), and His wrath against sin (Isaiah 66:15-16). The image of fire is also used
of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11 and Acts 2:3). Fire has many characteristics: it warms,
purifies, refines, transforms, and burns. As a purifying force, fire burns
up what is useless and refines what is impure besides giving warmth and energy. Elijah
brought the fire of judgment on the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36-40) and the soldiers
of King Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:10-14). John the Baptist promises that Jesus "will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire"(Matt 3: 11), and that promise was fulfilled at
Pentecost. James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans
who rejected Jesus, but Jesus would not permit it (Luke 9:54). We are also reminded
of the prophet's words, "For he is like a refiner's fire…" (Mal 3:2). The
fire burns hot, removing impurities and leaving only that which is desirable. These
meanings suggest that the fire which Jesus brings will consume or purify the world.
However, it is also possible that he means that his baptism will be a baptism of fire.
In the Aramaic language the word translated as “earth” can also mean “earth-oven,”
the common stove in Mediterranean villages, heated by burning dried and salted camel-dung
patties. The salt in the dried camel dung acted as a catalyst keeping fire burning
for a long time. In that sense, Jesus acts as a catalyst in his believers’ life
“I must be baptized with a baptism:” The cup and baptism are metaphors
for Jesus’ suffering and death when Jesus asks James and John, “Are you able to drink
the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?’ What Jesus
means by his statement is “I have a terrible experience through which I must pass,
and life is full of tension until I pass through it and emerge triumphantly from it.”
Our Baptism is a submersion in Christ’s death in which we die to sin and are reborn
to the new life of grace: “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might live in newness of life”(Romans 6:4). In the same way, our Eucharistic celebration
is a recollection of Jesus’ baptism (immersion) into suffering and death, and the
anguish it caused him, not simply a celebration of the community with the risen Christ
and with other believers.
“I have come to establish division on earth, not
peace.” As Jesus walked the road to Jerusalem, the disciples had to decide whether
to go with him or not. To be with or against Jesus is a decision which has the effect
of judgment and division. Since Luke emphasizes peace as the gift that Jesus brings
(1:79; 2:14; 19:38), we are shocked when Jesus declares that he has come not to bring
peace on earth but division, splitting even families apart. Jesus’ teaching caused
division in families, in communities and in the Church. For the Palestinian Jews
of the first century, a person's place in the family conferred personal identity,
protection, a support system, and a place in the community. To separate oneself from
one's family or clan was, literally, a matter of life and death. But Christianity
tore families in two, because a follower of Christ had to decide whether he loved
better his kith and kin or Christ. In Christianity, the loyalty to Christ has to
take precedence over the dearest loyalties of this earth. Belief in Jesus and commitment
to him cause fires of arguments to erupt between believers and non-believers in the
same family or community, resulting in the division of families and conflict in society.
Standing up for what is right, working for justice and truth are higher aims than
unity, and working for those aims will sometimes cause division. Hence, Christians
today may cause division and rouse opposition because they share through their Baptism
the prophetic charism of speaking God’s word, no matter how unpopular, and of giving
a voice to those who have no one to speak for them. Let us remember that Jesus’ sense
of justice brought him into conflict with those who exploited the weak and the poor.
His integrity invited confrontation with the dishonest and hypocritical leaders and
his love for the poor, for sinners and for the outcast alienated him from the narrow-minded
and self-righteous. C. S. Lewis once said that the gospel was concerned to create
"new people" not just "nice people."
Life messages: 1: Let us learn
to appreciate the contemporary prophets in the Church: The Jesuit Cardinal Avery Dulles,
writing about the role of prophecy in the modern church communities in his book Models
of the Church, remarks: “Christianity is not healthy unless there is room in it for
prophetic protest against abuses of authority.” God continues to send such prophets
to every parish community and it is the duty of the bishop, pastor and parish council
to listen to the well-intended and constructive criticisms of such Jeremiahs. The
words of the late archbishop Helder Camara, the champion of Brazil’s poor, serves
as a prophetic warning, to all members of the Church: “When I give bread to the poor
they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me communist.”
2:
We should have fire in our hearts: On the day of our Baptism, we received the light
of Christ and were instructed to keep that torch burning brightly until the return
of Christ Jesus. Besides, the Holy Spirit was sent into our hearts at Confirmation
to help set us on fire. The old proverb should be applicable to all baptized and confirmed
Christians: “He /She who is on fire cannot sit on a chair.” Our Lord Jesus continues
to cast fire on the earth, the fire of the Spirit, through the ministry of Word and
sacraments. As Christians, we should have fire to inflame people to care, to serve,
and to bless each other with all the gifts of faith. We should work with the Holy
Spirit to allow that fire to burn off the impurities in us and to bring out the purity
of the gold and silver within us. We need divine fire to inflame our hearts with the
love of God and love for His children. We Christians should blaze with the same fire
with which Jesus wished his disciples to burn: “I came to cast fire upon earth, and
would that it were already kindled” (Luke 12: 49). Hence, let us remember the old
saying, “He/She who is on fire cannot sit on a chair,” and let us carry the fire of
the Holy Spirit wherever we go. The scientist-cum-theologian Teilhard de Chardin said:
“Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity we shall
harness the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world
man will have discovered fire.” “An 'adult' faith is not a faith that follows the
trends of fashion and the latest novelty (“dictatorship of relativism”); a mature
adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that
opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the
true from the false, and deceit from truth” (Benedict XVI, April 18, 2005). Such a
faith will enable the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn in us and give us the courage
of our Christian convictions.
In the 1920s, an English adventurer named
Mallory led an expedition to conquer Mount Everest. His first, second and even his
third attempt with an experienced team met with failure. Upon his return to England,
the few who had survived held a banquet to salute Mallory and those who had perished.
As he stood up to speak he looked around he saw picture frames of himself and those
who had died. Then he turned his back on the crowd and faced a large picture of Mount
Everest looming large like an unbeatable giant. With tears streaming down his face,
he spoke to the mountain on behalf of his dead friends. “I speak to you Mt. Everest,
in the name of all brave men living, and those yet unborn. Mt. Everest, you defeated
us once, you defeated us twice; you defeated us three times. But Mt. Everest, we shall
someday defeat you, because you can’t get any bigger, but we can.” Today’s scripture
challenges us to confront the world with prophetic courage of our Christian convictions.