August
14, 2016
20th
Sunday in OT
Jeremiah
38:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
There is this
story about a child who asked his father to help him do the assignment in his
history class. They were supposed to answer the question: How do wars begin?
The father said to his child, “Well, wars begin when for example, the Philippines
attacks the U.S.” The mother heard the answer and replied, “How could that
happen? The Philippines and the U.S. are allies.” The father replied, “That was
just an example.” The mother said, “How can you expect our child to learn by
giving him wrong examples?” The father got irritated and said, “Will you please
shut up!” The mother also said, “You shut up too!” The child intervened and
said to his parents, “Mom, Dad, please stop. Now I know how war begins.”
The strong words
of Jesus in today’s gospel might give us an impression that war is coming. He
said: “I have come not to bring peace, but division – even among family
members.” Is this being consistent with our image of Jesus as the bringer of
peace and unity? What kind of division will Jesus bring about?
Let
us reflect on this in three points:
JESUS
CALLS US TO A WAR NOT AGAINST EACH OTHER BUT AGAINST EVIL. Goodness
will always be in conflict with evil. They can never go together. Jeremiah in the first reading
experienced this reality. He proclaimed the truth
that came from God. Jeremiah’s message was meant to awaken the people
to return to the Lord. This explains why the princes, who were deeply
disturbed by the message of Jeremiah, wanted to eliminate him. Evil would always
want to silence goodness. Sometimes this can happen among family members.
We should be at war against these evil forces: pride, lust, adultery,
anger, envy, injustice and
many more. These evil forces will cause division and destroy our family. To be
at war against these forces is never easy. We will surely encounter opposition
from people. What should we remember in the midst of this reality?
FIX
OUR EYES ON JESUS. Our second reading reminds us that we can survive in engaging at war
against these evil forces when we fix our eyes on Jesus. Why? Because Jesus
himself experienced how difficult it is to be at war against these evil forces.
Jesus experienced opposition, rejection, humiliation, suffering and even death.
But what did Jesus do? He never gave up. So when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we
see in him a model of faith because He persevered until the end no matter what
the cost is. In what concrete way can we fix our eyes on Jesus?
BE
FAITHFUL TO OUR BAPTISMAL PROMISES. Jesus in the gospel speaks of His
great anguish in anticipating his baptism. He is referring here to the baptism
of suffering that He will have to face. Perhaps we can also look at our own
baptism – particularly our fidelity to the promises we made when we were
baptized. What are those promises? We promised to reject sin. We promised to
reject Satan and all his empty promises. Have we been striving to be faithful
to these promises? Are we still disturbed every time we fail to be true to
these promises? When Jesus was baptized, He remained faithful to the Lord until
the end. Let us also strive to remain faithful to the promises we made when we
were baptized.
In this mass let
us pray for the grace of fortitude as we engage in a war against evil. Let us
fix our eyes on Jesus so that we may be inspired to remain faithful to our
baptismal promises. Amen.
