20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Luke 12: 49-53
This Sunday’s Readings
First Reading
Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10
Jeremiah is punished for criticizing the wealthy for their corruption and their injustice to the poor.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 40:2-4,18
A prayer for God’s help
Second Reading
Hebrews 12:1-4
Let us persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.
Gospel Reading
Luke 12:49-53
Jesus has come not only to bring peace but also division.
vs.49 Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!
vs.50 There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!
vs.51 Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. vs.52 For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; vs.53 the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Background on the Gospel Reading
Having reminded the apostles and the crowd that facing the coming judgment takes patience, Jesus now goes on to speak of how difficult it will be to wait. He tells them that he has come to set the earth on fire. Recall that in chapter 3 of Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist tells the crowd that he is baptizing with water, but someone mightier is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. The fire Jesus speaks of here is the distress caused by the coming judgment. It is also the fire of the Spirit that Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, will describe descending on the disciples on Pentecost. That fire will strengthen them to go out to the whole world to preach the good news of Jesus’ Resurrection.
Jesus will be the first to experience the distress of the coming judgment. His baptism will be the conflict into which he will be immersed as he approaches Jerusalem and his death on the cross. His followers will not be spared that distress. The angels at Jesus’ birth proclaimed peace on earth, and Simeon, holding the baby Jesus in the Temple, said to God: “Master, now you may let your servant go in peace.” Here Jesus tells the crowd not to think he has come to bring peace; he has come to bring division. Simeon said as much when he turned to Mary and said that the child was destined for the rise and fall of many and to be a sign that will be contradicted. Peace is the ultimate end of the Kingdom of God, but peace has a price. Jesus is warning the crowd that wherever the Word of God is heard and acted upon, division occurs. Fathers will be divided against sons and mothers against daughters.
The coming judgment forces us to look at the implications of our commitments. As Jesus warned in last Sunday’s Gospel, a commitment of faith requires us to change our attitude toward material possessions and to take even more seriously our moral responsibilities. Here he reminds the crowd that those who commit to him ill find it affects the way they relate to friends and family members. The angel who announced the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah said John would go before Jesus to turn the hearts of fathers toward their children. But a commitment to Jesus forces us to change the way we live our lives, and this can put strains on relationships.
We don’t expect to hear such difficult words from Jesus in the Gospel. But it is good to be reminded once in a while that the decision to do the right thing, the good thing, is not always easy and without conflict. Jesus himself did not make easy decisions and avoid conflict. In today’s reading, he reminds his followers to be prepared for difficult decisions and conflict as well.
The time for decisive choices
Pope Francis
In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:49-53), Jesus warns the disciples that the time for decision has arrived. In fact, his coming into the world coincides with the time for decisive choices: the option for the Gospel cannot be delayed. And in order to make this call clearer, he alludes to the fire that he himself came to bring to earth. He says: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled” (v. 49). These words aim to persuade the disciples to abandon their attitude of laziness, apathy, indifference and closure, so as to welcome the fire of God’s love; that love which, as Saint Paul reminds us, “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rm 5:5). Because it is the Holy Spirit that makes us love God and love our neighbour. It is the Holy Spirit whom we all have within us.
Jesus confides his most ardent desire to his friends and also to us: to spread the fire of God’s love on earth that enlightens life and through which mankind is saved. Jesus calls us to spread throughout the world this fire, thanks to which, we will be recognized as his true disciples. The fire of love, lit by Christ in the world through the Holy Spirit, is a boundless fire. It is a universal fire. This was so ever since the early days of Christianity: bearing witness to the Gospel spread like a beneficial fire, overcoming all division among individuals, social categories, peoples and nations. Bearing witness to the Gospel burns. It overcomes all forms of particularism and keeps charity wide open to all, with a preferential option for the poorest and the excluded.
Adherence to the fire of love that Jesus brought to earth, envelopes our entire existence and requires the adoration of God as well as a willingness to serve others. Adoration of God and a willingness to serve others. First, the readiness to adore God, also means learning the prayer of adoration which we usually forget. This is why I invite everyone to discover the beauty of the prayer of adoration and to recite it often. And second, the willingness to serve others. I think with admiration of the many youth communities and groups, who during the summer, dedicate themselves to this service to the sick, the poor and people with disabilities. In order to live according to the Gospel spirit, faced with the ever new needs that arise in the world, there is a need for disciples of Christ who know how to respond with new charitable initiatives. And so, with the adoration of God and service to others — practised together, adoring God and serving others — the Gospel truly manifests itself as a fire that saves, that changes the world beginning with a change in the heart of each one.
In this perspective, we can also understand Jesus’ other statement mentioned in today’s passage which, at first glance, may be disconcerting: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Lk 12:51). He came to “separate with fire”. To separate what? Good from evil, the just from the unjust. In this sense he came to “divide”, to cause “uneasiness” — albeit in a healthy way — in his disciples’ lives, breaking the facile illusions of those who think they can combine Christian life with worldliness, Christian life with compromises of all kinds, piety with a hostile attitude to others. Combining, some think, true religiosity with superstitious practices: how many so-called Christians go to fortune tellers to have their palms read! And this is superstition. It is not God. One must not live in a hypocritical way but be willing to pay the price for choices that are consistent — this is the attitude that each of us should seek in life: [being] consistent — paying the price for being consistent with the Gospel. Being consistent with the Gospel. Because it is good to call ourselves Christian but above all it is necessary to be Christian in concrete situations, witnessing to the Gospel, which is essentially love for God and for our brothers and sisters.
May Mary Most Holy help us to allow our hearts to be purified by the fire brought by Jesus in order to spread it with our life through decisive and courageous choices.
Angelus, 18/08/2019
Encountering God offers peace.
It can also be disruptive
Michael Simone
In the Hebrew Scriptures, divine fire represents the presence of God. Sometimes fire composed God’s body, as in Ez 1:27 or 2 Sm 22:9. Sometimes, fire was all that appeared when God appeared, as in Ex 19:18 or Dt 4:11-12. Beings and objects of fire could visit the earth to accomplish the divine will, as in Ex 3:1-5 and 2 Kgs 2:11. Finally, fire was an essential component of worship, serving as a kind of gate that transmitted offerings from the earthly to the heavenly realm (Jgs 13:20; 2 Chr 7:1-3). In all these cases, fire represents divine presence and action.
Divine fire always demanded a transformation and response. In some cases, an encounter with divine fire inspired deeper faith. Moses became a divine messenger after his encounter with the burning bush, and Israel’s encounter with divine fire at Carmel led them back to the faith of their ancestors. Divine fire protects Jerusalem in the prophecy of Zechariah (Zec 2:5), and fire purifies garments affected by leprosy (Lv 13:47-58). Those who approached God’s fiery presence impiously, however, found the experience destructive. Divine fire took the lives of Aaron’s sons (Lv 10:1-3) as well as the arrogant officers sent to arrest Elijah (2 Kgs 1:9-15). In each case, fire represents divine presence and elicits an irrevocable response from those who encounter it.
On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus takes stock of the transformation and disruption that his ministry has caused, and he recognizes in it the effects of divine fire. The disciples who continue to follow him have grown stronger in faith and understanding. People from the crowds who turn to him for healing have came away whole. But more and more people are finding him a disruptive presence and rejecting him and his message. Like the divine fire of the Hebrew Bible, Jesus’ presence elicits a response from all who encounter him.
Christ continues to challenge, reaching out today through the sacraments, the Scriptures, the church and the poor. In each case, the call requires conversion of heart. Many will find the Gospel’s affirmation that God is present and still at work to be deeply consoling. This consolation can free many from fear and transform them into servants of God’s kingdom.
For others, however, such an encounter will be disruptive. The peace that Christ offers does not affirm or support the status quo. Those of us who benefit from the world as it is may come away from Christ’s presence feeling scorched. If, through good discernment, we can recognize the divine presence even in those challenging encounters, we will find in it a divine fire that purifies and does not destroy.
Every heart turned to Christ brings a little more of the fiery divine presence into the world. In his own day, Jesus found that his words and actions burned some, but cleansed and inspired many others. Likewise, as we continue his mission today, we must remember the power of the message we bear. Bound up in every word is the divine presence that blazed on Sinai and transformed Israel. We are now God’s fire, purifying, healing, protecting and opening a way between heaven and earth.
https://www.americamagazine.org
Gospel reflection – Luke 12:49-53
by Fernando Armellini
What is the fire that Jesus came to bring on earth (v. 49)? What is the baptism that he must receive (v. 50)? Why does he say of not coming to bring peace, but rather division (v. 51)? What are the signs of the time that the hypocrites cannot recognize (v. 56)? What does the parable on the necessity of avoiding the judgment before the court have to do in all this discourse (vv. 58-59)? Today’s Gospel combines a series of rather enigmatic sayings of the Lord. Let us grasp the meaning.
Let’s start with the images of fire and baptism (vv. 49-50). After the flood the rainbow appears in the sky, a symbol of peace restored between heaven and earth. God swears: “Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen 9:11). From this promise, a conviction is born and spreads in Israel that, to cleanse the world of iniquity, God would no longer use water, but fire: “For by fire will the Lord execute judgment … against all mortals” (Is 66:16). The Baptist also announced the coming of the Messiah with threatening words: “He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire … . The chaff he will burn in everlasting fire” (Mt 3:11-12). Jesus also speaks of fire and, after him, almost all the authors of the New Testament.
What is it about? It is natural to think of the final judgment and eternal punishment that awaits the wicked. Not so fast! Maybe the Baptist and the disciple James and John imagined it so. The two brothers wanted to call down fire from heaven against the Samaritans (Lk 9:54), but surely not Jesus.
The fire of God is not intended to destroy or torture those who made mistakes. It is the instrument with which he wants to destroy evil and purify us from sin.
It is better to let the fire punish the fundamentalist and fanatic preachers of the seven apocalyptics! That one announced by the prophets and lit by Jesus saves, cleanses, heals: it is the fire of his Word; it is his message of salvation; it is his Spirit, that Spirit who, on the day of Pentecost, descended like tongues of fire on the disciples (Acts 2:3-11) and has begun to spread around the world like a beneficial and renewing blaze.
Now we can make sense of the exclamation of Jesus: “How I wish it were already kindled!” (v. 49). It is the expression of his burning desire to see the weeds that the world soon destroyed. Malachi announced: “The day already comes, flaming as a furnace. On that day all the proud and evildoers will be burned like straw in the fire” (Mal 3:19). Jesus looks forward to the realization of this prophecy. He already sees the rising of the new world wherein there will be no more space for the wicked. These will disappear, destroyed by the irresistible flame of his love.
The second image, that of baptism, is linked to the previous one. Jesus says that to unleash this fire, he must first be baptized. To baptize means to submerge and Jesus refers to his immersion in the waters of death (cf. Mk 10:38-39). This water has been prepared by his enemies in order to extinguish forever the fire of his word, love, and Spirit. It instead gets the opposite effect: it communicates to this fire an uncontrollable force. Jesus “looks with anguish” at the passion that awaits him. The prospect that he faces is dramatic: he will be overwhelmed by the waves of humiliation, suffering, and death, but he knows that coming out of these dark waters, on Easter Sunday, the new world will begin.
If this is the fate of the Master, which will be that of the disciples, torchbearers of his fire? They too will provoke—ensures Jesus—dissensions, divisions, hostility and will have to reckon with painful lacerations within their own families (vv. 51-53).
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” An amazing baffling statement because in the books of the prophets it is written that the Messiah would be “the prince of peace”; during his reign “peace will have no end” (Is 9:5-6); “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will rest beside the kid, and the calf and the lion cub will feed together” (Is 11:6-9); “The warrior’s bow shall be broken, when he dictates peace to the nations. He will reign from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Zec 9:10). In Bethlehem, the angels sing: “Peace on earth!” (Lk 2:14), and Paul writes: “He is our peace” (Eph 2:14).
Will the proclamation of the Gospel bring the world, among peoples, in the families harmony or discord?
It’s true, the prophets have promised peace for the messianic times, but also announced conflicts and separations. When Jesus speaks of misunderstandings between generations (young-old people) and among those living in the same house, he does nothing but quotes a passage from the prophet Micah (Mic 7:6). The prophet had understood that the birth of the new world would not have occurred in a peaceful and painless way and that there would be painful lacerations.
Luke verifies that these breaks occurred in his communities. In the light of the Master’s words, he understands that these were inevitable and the context in which these words are placed helps us to understand why.
The message of Jesus is a fire and—logically—who has the goods to be protected, buildings to be preserved is not keen to see the arsonists. The Gospel is a burning torch that wants to reduce to an immense fire all the unjust structures, the inhuman situations, discrimination, greed of money, the frenzy of power.
Who feels threatened by this “fire” does not remain passive. He opposes by all means. He reacts violently because he wants to perpetuate the world of sin. It is at this point that the first misunderstandings burst, then division and conflict, finally persecution and violence.
Union is not always good and should be approved. Union must be sought from the Word of God, from the truth. Peace founded on lies and injustice, cannot be favored. It must at times provoke, with much love and without offending anyone, healthy divisions.
One must not confuse hatred, violence, offensive, and arrogant words—which are incompatible with the Christian choice—with the honest challenge, disagreements that arise from new, evangelical proposals. These are needed, even if painful, especially when involving members of the same family.
We heard so much after the Council of the stupendous image of the “signs of the times.” It appears on the lips of Jesus in the third part of today’s Gospel (vv. 54-57).
For the farmers it is important to recognize the changes in the weather: They must know when the rains are coming to sow at the right time. They scan the sky, study the wind; they know they cannot go wrong as they risk seeing their own seeds burned by the sun. Why—asks Jesus—are people so attentive to the signs of heat and rain, don’t they know how to recognize the signs of the new world that have appeared? Because—he answers—they are hypocrites. They can see, but do not want to open their eyes. They don’t do it for ignorance, but for ill will. The new reality introduced by his word disturbs them, makes them uncomfortable. They want the old world to continue and pretend (as do the actors, the “hypocrites” in fact) not to notice what is happening.
Luke has in mind the situation of his communities in which many are afraid of the consequences of the Gospel and “pretend” not to notice the changes, transformations, and innovations that it is going to introduce.
The Gospel concludes with a parable (vv. 58-59). A man has wronged another and this threatens to take him to court. What to do? The culprit has no time to lose: he must immediately seek an agreement with his opponent, otherwise, he could be sentenced. What is the meaning of this parable?
Jesus says: the time of judgment is coming—the new world is going to rise. The signs of the great fire that will renew the face of the earth are obvious: “the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the dead are raised and the good news is announced to the poor” (Mt 11:5) and yet there are people who do not care in the least. They will be caught unprepared.
Fernando Armellini
Italian missionary and biblical scholar
https://sundaycommentaries.wordpress.com
