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Homily for the twentieth
Sunday in the year - Year C - Lk. 12:49-53
by
Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen
" Jesus said: «I came
to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I
have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it
is accomplished!»
" «Do you think that
I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three
against two and two against three; they will be divided, father against
son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter
against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.» "
Homily:
" Jesus said: «I came
to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I
have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it
is accomplished!» "
All of today's liturgy
plunges us into the context of contradiction! The prophets who, like
Jeremiah, proclaimed the Messiah were contradicted and ill-treated by
their contemporaries. Jesus himself resolutely underwent worse torments
in order to satisfy divine justice. Christians of all times, and above
all the martyrs, didn't hesitate to testify to their faith at the price
of their blood. We must face contradiction! He who wants
to belong to Christ must prepare himself for the struggle of faith,
because Jesus himself is a sign of contradiction: "Do you think that I
have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division."
Is this a terrifying thing?
A terrible situation? Not at all! It is the path one must follow,
because there is no other! It is necessary to resign oneself to it as
Jesus did when he resolutely took the road to Jerusalem to undergo his
Passion. The path is marked out, the Teacher has already travelled it:
it remains for us to follow him, if we want to share in his glory. "Was
there not a necessity for the Christ thus to suffer, and then enter
into His glory?" (Lk. 24:26) For we must not forget: contradiction is
something that must be passed through, it is a place of transition
which is obligatory, but transitory! Through the Cross, Jesus opens
Heaven to us: by uniting ourselves to his Cross, we also go to Heaven!
" «I have a baptism
to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is
accomplished!» "
Jesus speaks to us here of
his baptism on the Cross: he ardently wants to be baptized in his Blood
in order to render glory to God by giving satisfaction for our sins.
Truly, Jesus wants this baptism! Didn't Jesus say to his disciples, on
the evening of Holy Thursday: "I have earnestly desired to eat this
passover with you before I suffer." (Lk. 22:15) Now, that Passover was
the last of his life, it was the meal during the course of which he
instituted the sacrament of his Sacrifice! Therefore, when Jesus
earnestly wants to eat the Passover, he is thinking first and foremost
of the sacrament of his Body and Blood: for Jesus, to eat the Passover
is to consummate his sacrifice even before it is achieved.
The baptism of Jesus on the
Cross is the model for our own baptism, a baptism that, like the
baptism of Jesus, leads to life: "We were buried therefore with him by
baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Rm. 6:4)
If therefore we must undergo our share of contradiction, we must
endeavor, with God's grace, to turn our eyes toward Heaven: if
contradiction reaches us, let us think that Heaven is waiting for us
and that our meeting with the Lord is coming soon! Contradiction lasts
only for a moment, but Heaven is eternal!
" «Do you think that
I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division.» "
Jesus told us he didn't
come to earth in order to bring peace. But let us be clear about this:
Jesus didn't come to bring peace as the world conceives of it. For
Jesus did indeed come to bring peace, but his own peace: "Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to
you." (John 14:27) The peace which Jesus brings is a relative peace.
That means that the peace of Jesus is a peace in which the soul is
sufficiently calm in order to cooperate with the Work of God, but
without contradictions being completely absent from this life. The
peace of Jesus is located at the proper midpoint between tranquillity
and contradiction, the latter being sufficiently dominated in order
that the soul can live peacefully.
In a short time, in the
course of this eucharistic celebration, the priest, in the name of all
the assembly, will speak these words of Jesus: "Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give to you..." This will take place just before
communion. Let us ask Mary that these words be achieved in all their
fullness, for the greater glory of God!
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