OT XX [C] Jer 38:4-6, 8-10; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12: 49-53 

Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

There is a story that took place in Russia in 1905 and the plot centers around a man named Tevye, the father of a poor Jewish family. He has five daughters but no son. His eldest daughter marries a tailor who was not chosen for her by the traditional matchmaker. After a struggle with his conscience Teyve accepts the marriage. His next daughter marries a college student who has broken with many Jewish traditions. After another struggle with his conscience, Teyve accepts this marriage too. Finally, his third daughter, Chava, marries a non-Jew, a young Russian soldier. When Golde, Teyve’s wife breaks the news to him, Teyve, says, “Chava is dead to us! We must forget her.” Alone, Teyve, sings a beautiful song called “Chavalah”. In it he pours out his heart to God. He can’t understand why Chava did what she did. At that moment Chava appears and pleads with Teyve to accept her and her husband. Teyve looks up to heaven and says: “How can I accept them? Can I deny everything I believe in? On the other hand, can I deny my own child? (But if I deny everything I believe in, if I try to bend that far, I will break). No Chava!”  — When Jesus invited people to follow him, he realized what he was asking.

At least 75% of the Christian families, I believe, going through this kind of situations, torn between love and faith. What will you choose? Can you strike a balance without losing both? Both the first reading and the gospel speak with such situations.

Jeremiah in the first reading lived at a tumultuous time in Israel's history, right around 600 BC. The northern half of Israel had recently been conquered by Assyria, but the small, southern part of the country, Judah, where Jerusalem was located and where Jeremiah lived, was still free when Jeremiah was born. But it was located right between two powerful empires that were trying to conquer the whole area: Egypt in the south and Babylon in the north. Jeremiah's mission in life was to be a prophet, to constantly remind the people and rulers of Judah to trust in God.

If they obeyed God's commandments and instructions, God would protect them. Unfortunately, neither the leaders nor the people wanted to hear that. Instead, they wanted to take matters into their own hands, fight their own battles, and arrange their own peace treaties. The one thing they didn't want to do was to depend on and obey God.

Every time the King of Judah asked Jeremiah for guidance, Jeremiah would pray, receive instructions, and inform the King - and then the King would do the exact opposite. And then God would ask Jeremiah to issue warnings, calling the people to repentance. But they wouldn't repent. So, eventually Judah was conquered by Babylon, Jerusalem was obliterated, and the Jews were taken into exile. Through it all, Jeremiah was the despised scapegoat. They spread lies about him, mocked him, burned his writings, and finally put him in prison. When even that didn't silence him, they threw him down a well so he would starve to death. Why? Simply because he was being faithful to what God was asking of him.

Yes, choosing to follow Christ in a fallen world has consequences, and God wants us to be ready for them. Being a Christ's friend means more than simply praying and receiving the sacraments - although those are essential. It also means FOLLOWING him. It means daily listening for his call and obeying it when it comes. That's the tough part. Because, obeying Christ means, going against the grain of this fallen world. It brings us into conflict with social trends, other people's desires, and even of our own sin-struck nature. Even though Christ did come to establish peace between God and man, that peace causes a division between those who accept it and those who reject it. In this way he becomes a sign of contradiction.

The division which Jesus speaks of here has several features. History has borne testimony to the fact that the gospel divides men and women, husbands and wives, parents and children, for faith in Christ requires ultimate allegiance to Him. Not even family ties should hold us back from following him.

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 and 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.  C.S. Lewis once said that the Gospel was concerned to create “new people” not just “nice people.” If our individual and communal living of the Good News casts no fire and causes no division, then perhaps we are practicing “inoffensive Christianity.”

The polarization that began from the time of Jesus has been continued throughout the centuries. It will never end. Jesus’ words speak of the inevitable consequence of his message. Divisions are foreseen, and divisions and conflicts have been a constant reality because the Christian gospel makes great demands. The challenge is to continue to speak the truth with love in spite of opposition.

Jesus has come to “bring fire to the earth” because some things that exist in our world have to be destroyed in order for something new, beautiful, and life-giving to emerge. And that is the mission of the church and each one of us, to keep the fire of Christ burning alive to burn down the sin of the world and in ourselves and create a new world loyal to Christ, the truth.