OT XXI [C] Is 66:18-21, Heb 12:5-7, 11-13; Lk 13:22-30

In Bethlehem, there is a wonderful Basilica called the Basilica of the Nativity. It is the oldest church in use in the Holy Land, dating from the 6th century. Most of the churches in the Holy Land were destroyed by the Muslims in the year 636, but this one was spared. The entrance into this ancient Basilica is not very imposing. It is a very small and low door, which only admits one at a time. Over the centuries, the entrance got gradually smaller to prevent people from taking away large amounts of booty. Nowadays, the door is called the door of humility and all but children have to lower their heads to get through it. Just as a small, narrow door leads into the wonderful Basilica of the Nativity, so in the gospel reading the narrow door Jesus speaks about leads into a great feast at which people from east and west, from north and south have gathered.

Jesus’ refusal to answer the question, ‘Will there be only a few saved?’ directly suggests that it is a wrong question. It is not for us to speculate as to who is in and who is out. Strive to enter through the narrow door. Jesus’ reference to a ‘narrow door’ is clearly an image. He is not talking about an actual narrow door that can be found somewhere. To enter by a narrow door requires a certain amount of concentration, whereas we can sail through a wide door or gate without even noticing it. The word ‘strive’ suggests struggle and exertion. To get through a narrow door, you need to be focused and attentive. You need a clear vision of where you are going and a certain commitment to get there.

This narrow door is, in a sense, Jesus himself. On one occasion, in the gospel of John, Jesus spoke of himself as the gate or the door. ‘I am the gate’, he says, ‘whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture… I came that they may have life and have it to the full’. Taking Jesus as our gate, our door, entering through him, requires a certain effort and focus on our part. Walking in his way, living by his values, does not happen automatically for us. There are plenty of other doors and ways that compete for our attention; there are other sets of values that try to engage us. We have to consciously choose the Lord’s door before other doors that open up for us that are easier to get through and make fewer demands on us. Much of the culture in which we live today pulls us in very different directions from the direction that the gospel calls us to take. The world in which we live is not always supportive of the values of the gospel. There can be a lot of pressure on people, some of it subtle, to act in ways that are contrary to the message of Jesus. Choosing the narrow door, choosing the Lord, involves coming to know him with our heart and mind, growing in our relationship with him, so that he becomes a significant presence in our lives.

In the gospel reading, some of Jesus’ contemporaries declared, ‘We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets’. However, Jesus suggests that that kind of superficial relationship with him is not enough. We are to take the Lord to heart, just as he has taken us to heart. The key question is not whether we know about Jesus, but whether He knows us. Salvation is a living relationship. In John 10:14, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” On the last day, the difference between those inside and those outside will not be whether we have heard His teaching, but whether He can say, “I know you.”

The evangelical Christians are so obsessed with the notion of salvation by Faith that they totally ignore an entire body of Jesus’ teachings that call for commitment and sacrifice. They believe that merely by receiving baptism, one goes to heaven whether one lives a true Christian life or not. This gospel passage clearly refutes that theory. Enter through the narrow gate. It is true that when you receive baptism, you are saved and are offered heaven. But you can also lose it by renouncing it by yourself, rejecting the offer of God. You can reject your faith and become a Muslim, the follower of the worst religion in the world. But when you come back, you don’t need to be rebaptized because God did not revoke his promise of giving you heaven. God will still keep his promise; we are the ones denying it for ourselves, not God. God will not drag anyone to heaven against one’s choice.

 

Our going through that narrow door is not all down to our own efforts and striving. Our efforts are contained within the Lord’s effort on our behalf. Jesus said of himself: ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. The Lord is always drawing us through that narrow door that leads to life. He is not standing on the far side of the door looking at our efforts in some kind of detached way. Rather, he is continually engaged and involved with us. In the first reading, the Lord, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, states: ‘I am going to gather the nations of every language’. The door may be narrow, but the Lord is going to pull through that door large numbers from every language and culture. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of people from east and west, from north and south who take their place at the feast on the far side of the narrow door in the kingdom of God. There is an implicit answer here to the question that was put to Jesus in the gospel reading, ‘Will only a few be saved?’ The answer to that question is ‘no’. People from the four corners of the earth will get through that door, and some of those who get through may surprise us, ‘those now last will be first’.

Let’s pray today for the grace to live out our baptismal promises and prepare ourselves to enter through the narrow gate by prayer, supplication and constant renunciation of our sinful desires and by following Jesus who said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” ( Lk 9:23).  

 

 

 OT XXV [C] Readings:  Am 8:4-7; I Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-1

 A few years ago, a priest was giving a retreat to inmates in a federal prison in the South. One of the talks dealt with Jesus’ teaching on revenge. Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” To illustrate Jesus’ point, the priest told the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in the major leagues. When Branch Rickey signed Jackie to a Dodger contract in 1945, he told him, “You will have to take everything they dish out to you and never strike back.” Rickey was right. On the field, pitchers brushed Jackie back with blazing fastballs, and opposing fans and teams taunted him. Off the field, he was thrown out of hotels and restaurants where the rest of the team stayed and ate. Through it all, Jackie kept his cool. He turned the other cheek. And so did Dodgers’ General Manager Rickey, who was abused by people for signing Jackie. The priest ended the story by asking the prisoners this question: “Where do you think black athletes would be today had Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey not turned the other cheek?” After the talk, a prisoner said to the priest: “That’s a nice story, Father. But why didn’t you tell the whole story? Why didn’t you tell why Rickey and Robinson turned the other cheek? It wasn’t for love of God. It was for love of money. Rickey turned the other cheek because if he succeeded, he would make a fortune too.” The priest thought to himself for a minute: “If the prisoner’s right, then he’s just shot my nice little story right out of the water.” — But then the priest thought: “Hey! Wait a minute! If the prisoner’s right, then my story makes an even more important point!” It’s the same point Jesus makes in today’s Gospel. Jesus says: “The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” 

‘The children of this world’ are the children of darkness who see and value only the things of this world.  They live for this world, concentrate their attention on it, invest everything in it, give the energies of mind and body fully to it, and find in it their entire purpose for living. 

 Christian believers, however, are ‘the children of light’ who see real, eternal, spiritual values as primary and regard temporal values as secondary. The children of this world regard themselves as owners, while true Christians regard themselves as mere stewards of God who view their resources as simply loaned to them by God. 

It sounds strange to hear Jesus praising the steward of this parable for being so sly. In saving our souls and spreading the Good News, our Lord wants us to apply the same ingenuity and effort that other people put into their worldly affairs or into their attempts to attain some human ideal.

Many of the great men and women of the world - the CEOs, the athletes, the movie stars, the political leaders - are exemplary in their tenacity, their determination, and their astuteness.  They set a goal and let nothing stop them from achieving it. They turn everything into an opportunity to advance their cause. Imagine how different the Church (and the world) would be if every Catholic pursued holiness that energetically.

The steward knew that his time of employment was coming to an end. Before his last day arrives, he uses his connections and position to prepare for the future. Jesus reprimands his followers for not applying that same astuteness to the more important project of preparing for eternity.

We are all like that steward. We know that our lives will come to an end, sooner or later. We know it for a fact. And yet, are we effectively utilizing our resources and opportunities to prepare for what will come next? This is the question he wants us to ask ourselves. Are we energetically building Christ's Kingdom now, so as to be able to enjoy it forever later?

Sometimes we are irresponsible stewards because we forget what's really at stake. We become seduced by day-to-day problems and pleasures and forget that this life is passing. It is only a warm-up for eternal life.

In the parable, the steward was in charge of his master's account books, so he exercised his smartness by rearranging the debts people owed. We don't have control over Christ's account books.  Instead, we have three commodities to be managed astutely.

The three commodities are time, talent, and treasure.

How much time do we give to Christ and his Kingdom?  We all give him some time - that's why we're here. But can we give more? Should we? It may be a matter of dedicating larger chunks of time to serving Christ and the Church, or it may be a matter of simply adding some prayers to our drive to work. We are called to be wise stewards of our time.

Second, talent. 

Our talents too are resources given by God. We are called to invest them in loving God and loving our neighbor. Maybe this area is where we can be better stewards.

Finally, treasure. 

It is a law of the Church that every Catholic should give financial support to the works of the Church, each one in accordance with their means. There is a longstanding tradition in Christianity of tithing. If we don't do that, we should ask ourselves why not.

The manager in Jesus’ story used all his resources to secure his future. We must be no less resourceful. We have the Holy Mass and the Seven Sacraments as sources of Divine grace, the Holy Bible as the word of God for daily meditation and practice, and the Spirit-guided Church to direct us. These are the best possible resources; we need to use them in such a way that it will be said of us, “And the master commended them because they acted so wisely.”

 

Today, in Holy Communion, Christ will give himself entirely to each one of us, holding nothing back.   When he does, let's ask him to teach us to use our resources for his glory and the propagation of his kingdom.

 

 

 

 

OT XXIV [C] Ex 32:7-11, 13-14; I Tm 1:12-17; Lk 15:1-32

Everyone has lost something at one time or another.  There is even a website complete with mobile app, http://www.lostandfound.com, that acts as a global ‘lost and found’ box. Users can report items missing and users can report items found. It is a good example of how technology can help people connect in a useful way. This is a gateway site for all of the physical things that can be retrieved and returned to their rightful owners. According to their statistics, about twice as many objects have been reported lost as have been reported found in the U.S. So, the site’s users are losing things at twice the rate they are finding them. — Haven’t we all had the experience of losing things that we know deep down we will never recover? Depending on the situation, we can feel disappointed, heartbroken, hopeless, or simply discouraged by our own inability to keep up with things. Some Catholics invoke St. Antony who is the patron for the lost things. Isn’t it a wonderful relief to know that we will never fall into the ‘Lost Forever’ category? Isn’t it reassuring to know that God will never give up on us?

All the 3 parables in Luke 15 show us vividly that God cares about each one of us: he will not rest if only one sheep is missing, or one coin is lost. They show us that He cares deeply enough to go out of His way to save us when we are lost: it was certainly an inconvenience to go bushwhacking after the foolish stray sheep, and to light the lamp and sweep the dirt-floored house trying to find the lost coin.

Finding of the lost objects in the parable shows that God rejoices when we return to him, as the shepherd rejoices upon retrieving his sheep, and as the woman rejoices upon recovering her coin - every sinner who returns to God causes a joyful celebration to break out in the halls of heaven and the heart of the Father.

The self-righteous and judgmental comments of the Pharisees, provided the occasion for these parables to be told by Jesus. If the Pharisees had possessed Christ's power and authority, they would have destroyed all "sinners." But Christ uses all his power and authority to bring sinners back into communion with God.

The Pharisees can't understand this, because they have painted their image of God in their own likeness. They enjoy condemning others for being less perfect than themselves, because it feeds their vanity, making them feel superior. God’s limitless and entirely selfless desire to save sinners was revealed most fully by Christ on the cross, but it is also the main theme behind every other episode in salvation history.

We just listened to one of those episodes from the OT.  While Moses had been up on the mountain in prayer, receiving the Law from God's own hands, the Israelites down in the valley had lost hope and abandoned their faith. Instead of continuing to trust in the God who had already done so many miracles to save them from slavery and lead them to safety, they gave up on God. They rebelled against him, turned their backs on him, and built an idol out of gold. From the Pharisees' perspective, God should have simply destroyed them. That's the natural view of things, which God seems to adopt in his conversation with Moses, when he says he is going to destroy these faithless, stiff-necked people. But God doesn't mean it. He is only testing Moses. And Moses passes the test.

It is sometimes hard for our fallen human nature to see God's mercy clearly. We tend to be judgmental, so we also tend to project that - wrongly - onto God. This wrong conception can be detrimental to our maturity and peace of mind. It puts a wall around our own hearts, so that God's love can't reach in and transform us.

Let us realize the truth that our brothers and sisters deserve and expect from us the same compassion, kindness and forgiveness which we receive from our merciful God. As forgiven prodigals, we must become forgiving people, for Jesus taught us to pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” 

Jesus is not asking us to be like either of the two brothers in the parable, because both were far from perfect.  Let us try and be like the father in the story. “Be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Be compassionate as the heavenly Father is.”

It is important to find out our own faults and sins and become aware of them so that we can humble ourselves before God and ask forgiveness. Before we go to bed at night, make it a habit to examine our conscience and confess to God our sins and failures of the day, asking His pardon and forgiveness. As the prodigal son came to his senses we also need to come to our senses and realize where we stand before God each day.

As we continue with the celebration of the Holy Mass, let us pray also for God’s Divine mercy on all of us who have fallen away from God’s grace.  Let us open our eyes to see and ears to hear that Jesus is welcoming us back home! And there will be a great rejoicing in heaven over our returning home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 OT XXIII- Wis 9:13-18b; Phlm 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25–33

 In his world-conquering march, Alexander the Great approached a highly fortified city and through a messenger demanded to see the king and set out his terms of surrender. The king laughed at him and said, “Why should I surrender to your emperor Alexander? You can’t do us any harm! We can endure any siege.” As the messenger returned Alexander ordered his men to line up in single file and to march towards the cliff within sight of the city walls. The city’s citizens watched with horrified fascination as one by one Alexander’s officers marched over the edge of that cliff and plunged to their death. After several men had obeyed his orders, he commanded them to halt. He then called his troops back to his side and stood silently facing the city. The effect on the citizens and the king was stunning. From spellbound silence they moved to absolute terror. They realized they had no walls thick enough and no defense strong enough to protect themselves against that kind of commitment and that kind of devotion. Spontaneously they rushed through the gates to surrender themselves to Alexander the Great. — That is the kind of surrender and sacrifice that Jesus is asking for. One thing you have to say about today’s terrorists is that they are willing to die for what they believe. The tragedy is that terrorists are more willing to pay a price and are more willing to die for a lie than Christians are to live for the truth.

Jesus said to the great crowds, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Is Christ telling us to hate the very people we should love the most? No.  In ancient Palestine, figures of speech were often vivid. The more important the point, the more vivid the image. For example when Christ says: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off,” he’s not saying that every person who’s ever stolen a cookie from the cookie jar should start amputating body parts. He is saying that we need to be radical in our fight against sin. If a certain situation or place or person is always leading us away from God, he wants us to have the courage to renounce that situation or place, and put healthy boundaries with that person.

Unless we love Jesus more than we love our families, we can’t really follow him. And if we value our own life and our own comfort more than we love Him, we’re not going to be able to experience the joy of a deep friendship with him. Christ gives us to key to loving him above all else: it means letting go of our possessive love.

 

Just as a tower builder needs to have enough in the budget for materials and as a general to win a war needs to have enough well-trained troops to defeat his opponents, so we, to be followers of Christ need to know the sufferings that keeping this commitment will demand.  Perhaps these parables also illustrate that discipleship is not a one-time decision and that the commitment involved needs to be an ongoing decision to persevere in the ministries that are integral to following Jesus.  When we first decide to follow Christ, we know simply that there will be a price to pay.  Only as life unfolds can we begin to assess the full cost. 

 

When Jesus says: “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple”, he’s not saying that everyone should run off and sell their homes and cars right after Mass. We have a responsibility to others, and we need to use the gifts of God wisely. He is, however, calling us to give up our possessive, hoarding attitude towards material possessions and towards others. He’s inviting us to carry our crosses by renouncing our possessions for the infinite gain of loving him above all things

 

Jesus asserted in the Sermon on the Mount: “No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24).  He cannot stand halfway between both sides. He has to decide and show his commitment.

The four conditions of discipleship as outlined by Jesus in this gospel indicate a kind of total commitment that every follower of Christ should be prepared to live. The radical demands of Jesus call us to center our lives on the suffering and risen Christ.

Taking up our own cross does not mean seeking out suffering. Jesus did not seek out his cross; he took on himself, in obedience to the Father, what men put on his shoulders, and with his obedient love, he transformed it from an instrument of torture into a sign of redemption and glory. Jesus did not come to make human crosses heavier, but rather to give them meaning. It has been rightly said that “whoever looks for Jesus without the cross will find the cross without Jesus,” that is, he will certainly find the cross but not the strength to carry it. Though “bearing a cross” is often equated with welcoming chronic illness, painful physical conditions, or trying family relationships, it also includes what we do voluntarily, as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus Christ.  Further, it is the spirit in which we freely and deliberately accept and endure the pain, the difficulties, and even the ridicule involved with these choices, that transforms them into real cross-bearing. We need to be prepared to suffer out of love for Jesus.

 

Real discipleship demands true commitment to the duties entrusted to us by life, circumstances, the community, or directly by God Himself, and by loving acts of selfless, humble, sacrificial love offered to all God’s children around us.  Let us remember that all this is possible only if we rely on the power of prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Today Christ will come in Holy Communion to strengthen us once again, so that we can continue bearing our crosses with faith and hope. This week, let's share that strength with someone who needs it. Let's take a share of a neighbor's cross, just as Christ has taken a share of ours.

 

 

 

 

 

OT 22 [C]: Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a; Lk 14:1, 7-14

An old story is told about someone searching for the meaning of life who wanders into the hut of a holy hermit in a forest. The hermit offers his guest tea and keeps pouring tea into the cup until it is overflowing. The guest watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. “Stop! The cup is full. No more will go in.” And then the hermit replied, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions, preconceptions, and ideas. How can I teach you unless you first empty your cup?” — That is a wonderful story about humility, which is esteemed by many religious traditions. Dante in ‘The Divine Comedy’ thought of humility as the most important virtue. Humility is radical dependence upon and trust in God. 

One of the most important laws in Christ's Kingdom is the law of humility. This law says that "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted". In other words, greatness in his Kingdom comes not from outdoing other people, outperforming them, and out-distancing them. Greatness in Christ's eyes comes from serving other people, from elevating them, helping them advance, and keeping oneself in the background.

In his very first sermon, Jesus had taught the same law with different words: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." It's the same law stated so directly in today's First Reading: "conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved.. Humble yourself... and you will find favor with God." This law goes directly against everything this fallen world teaches us. It's extremely hard for us to swallow, which is why Jesus explained it by using this unambiguous parable.

This law is so fundamental, that Jesus also taught it to us by living it out in an extreme way: through his passion and death. Jesus, the Lord of heaven, came to earth and purposefully took the lowest place possible - that of a condemned criminal. He freely took on the most humiliating form of death - crucifixion. He allowed himself to be stripped of every honor.

In the parable, we heard Jesus talking about where the guests should sit at the table when invited somewhere. As a general rule in a fixed system, the most distinguished guest sits at the right hand of the host where he receives the highest honour. The second most important guest sits at the left side of the host, and so on. He used this example of good manners at the table to draw attention to how honour is accredited in the Kingdom of God.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is a great example that Jesus has given. This parable explains the power of humility as seen in our prayers. In the parable, Jesus talks about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 

The Pharisee began thanking God for “not being like other people”. He thanked God for not being one of the sinners and even added that he fasts twice a week and gave tenths of everything he receives. Now, the tax collector stood far away. He could not even look to heaven as he beat his breast and asked the Lord to have mercy on him, a sinner. The parable then ends with Jesus saying that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

It is important to stay humble because having humility not only helps us develop a more kind approach to interacting with others but it also influences how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Humility helps one extend more compassion and empathy to others.  Humility offers the opportunity to become less self-involved and more attuned with the feelings of others.

It is relatively easy to be humble when we are at the bottom of the tree, as it were: new in a job, or very junior. The more senior we get, the more likely that we become proud. 

A key quality of humility is to value others and enable them to be heard. Spending time listening to others, and drawing out their feelings and values, enabling them to express themselves, is a very powerful way to start to understand this.

Secondly, be grateful for what we have. In other words, take the time to ‘count your blessings’, and be thankful for them. It is easy to get sucked into a negative spiral of wanting more. Taking time to stop, and remember what we have to be grateful for, is a good way to cultivate a more humble and positive frame of mind.

The Proverb says that the Lord detests everyone with a proud heart and that they will be punished. Pride is very offensive in the Eyes of God. With humility, we learn that this is the truth and that we should put ourselves before Him. Not being humble is basically like declaring that we are no longer in need of God’s guidance, and that is offensive to the Lord.

In washing the feet of His disciples Jesus set the greatest example of humility. Jesus set the bar for being humble. Our aim is to be like Jesus. So, if Jesus set the standard for humility, we should lower our level of pride to attain this. The Grace of God is like a waterfall; the water never flows upward to the skies. Instead, it flows and hits the ground in a downward motion. Therefore, those who are blessed are those who are humble.

As we prepare to receive the gift of gifts, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we ask him to give us the joy seeing ourselves as he sees us, and to make us truly humble of heart. Jesus meek and humble of heart make my heart like yours.

 XXI-O.T. Is. 66:18-21; Heb. 12:5-7, 11-13; Lk. 13:22-30

As he continues his fateful journey to Jerusalem, Jesus answers the question as to how many will be saved by answering how to enter into salvation and how urgent it is to strive now, before the Master closes the door. Jesus also admonishes his followers to concentrate on their own salvation instead of worrying about the salvation of others.

We don't know who the questioner was. It was someone who believed in eternal life. He was wondering if it was as hard to attain it as the prevailing view was. In our culture, the prevailing view is just the opposite.  It says that most people are nice guys, so most people will get to heaven. But what does Jesus say? He doesn't give a direct answer. He doesn't say, "Only a few will be saved," as the Pharisees taught. Neither does he say, "Many will be saved," as today's popular culture teaches. Instead, he changes the focus from general statistics to the individual. He looks at his questioner and says, "Strive to enter by the narrow gate." Then he tells a parable that reinforces this emphasis on individual responsibility (as opposed to general appearances) by showing that on Judgment Day there will be a lot of surprises - the first will be last, and the last will be first. We cannot take our friendship with Christ for granted. We have to consciously and continually strive to enter by the narrow gate.

Jesus is inviting us to break out of our comfort zones and start striving to follow him more closely. It's a real relationship that needs attention and effort. He invites us to strive more intelligently or energetically. Daily prayer and frequent confession are essential aspects of striving to enter through the narrow gate.

We cannot strive with all our strength to follow Christ if we do not know Christ.  It is not enough to have a superficial knowledge of Christ - like the people who said, "We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets." Rather, we have to have a living, lasting, growing friendship with Christ. That is what we were created for, and that is what will lead us to true life.

And since friendship always involves effort, self-sacrifice, and the investment of time and energy, the same thing goes for our friendship with Christ. Salvation comes from actually following him, from striving to know him better and live out his teaching. This is what Jesus means by "the narrow gate" that leads to salvation. To get through a narrow gate you have to leave behind all your excess baggage - you have to go through it on purpose.

It is possible to be labeled a Christian on the outside without really making an effort to follow the Christian way in our hearts. It is possible to come to Mass, to be involved with parish activities, and still never really enter into a committed, life-changing, personal relationship with Christ. Jesus knows that going through the motions isn't enough; we need to let his grace change our lives.

 

A few ways to start striving to know Christ better are: weekly Eucharistic adoration, joining Bible studies, renewing your prayer life, reading a good book on Christ, meditating on the mysteries of the rosaries etc... Jesus is eager to help us through the narrow gate, but he can't do his part unless we also strive to do our part.

The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us: "do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines..." In other words, every trial and tribulation that comes our way in life is either sent or permitted by God for our benefit. Nothing is outside of his wise and loving plan. And the main focus of that plan is to restore us to the fullness of life that sin has disrupted.

 

When God sends or permits trials, we often react by rebelling. In the spiritual life, we are like children who don't appreciate the value of discipline. So when following Christ's path becomes uncomfortable, when his gate becomes too narrow, we start looking around for shortcuts. We think to ourselves, “Jesus promises lasting happiness, but it seems so far away!" And then we think about the people around us, and the people on television and in the movies. They seem to be enjoying themselves so much. They don't follow Christ's teaching, but they seem to be doing just fine. And that's when we start to compromise in our moral lives. We cut corners on Church teaching in little ways that no one will notice. We make little exceptions. After all, we tell ourselves, everyone else is doing it. And so we step off the straight path traced out by the Ten Commandments and the Catechism - that sure and dependable path that our conscience always points too. We prefer the winding "shortcut".

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body.

Our struggles in life develop our strengths. Without struggles, we never grow and never get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle challenges on our own, and not be relying on help from others. When we accept these challenges and grow we will be able to say with Robert Frost,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.