The Catholic Liturgy for the 20th
Sunday of Ordinary Time, Aug. 18, 2019. Gospel – Luke 12:49-53. Theme: Fire
& Division?
Today’s gospel can
be quite a contrast to our traditional image of Jesus! Where is the meek
and mild gentle Jesus of our Christmas carols? The Jesus who commands us to turn
the other cheek and love our enemies? The Jesus whom Isaiah calls the Prince of
Peace? The impression of Jesus we
encounter in today’s Gospel seems so very different, what with talking about setting
the world on fire and saying that he has “not come to bring peace but division”.
But we have to
remember that, when Jesus became a human being he entered into a specific time
of history and into a specific culture which became his own. And so, we hear
him today speaking as a 1st century Jew using a very common Hebrew form
of over-emphasis and exaggeration in order to prove his point. Translated roughly into 21st
century English, what he is saying is this: “If you would be a Christian in
actuality and not just in name only, your relationship with me must take
priority over every other relationship even if this causes difficulty.”
I personally know
of couples where only one spouse is a devout believer while the other is not so
much or even not at all, and who struggles to understand the commitment of the
other, sometimes causing friction as each Sunday approaches. Or of parents at
odds with a child who has abandoned the faith of their baptism and has taken up
a lifestyle diametrically opposed to Christianity. Or of siblings who ridicule
one of their own brood because of his or her adherence to the teachings of the
Catholic Church.
I’m sure many of
you have encountered or perhaps are even now experiencing such things. We all
know that there are times in life when we just have to make a choice and take a
stand. We have to be strong in our
convictions and firm in our faith but in a way that does not intentionally
attack or offend others. And the key
word here is intentionally, because it is impossible to live in peace with
everyone, but the first one we must live in peace with is God.
But this challenge
of faith in our relationships is nothing new. Ever since the earliest days of
Christianity, there have been many who have been shunned, disowned or even
martyred by their own families because of their conviction for Christ, fidelity
to his Word, and obedience to God’s commandments. Someone who always comes to my mind in this
topic of maintaining the priority of our relationship with Christ is a teenage
martyr of the 7th century to whom I am very devoted: her name is St.
Dymphna.
I wish she was
better known in our times because she is a saint we need so much today. She is the patron saint of emotional and
mental health, and a powerful intercessor with Christ for such things as
nervousness, anxiety, panic, depression, suicide, phobias, eating disorders,
addictions and co-dependency. Dymphna was
a living example of today’s gospel and she paid the ultimate price for the sake
of her commitment to God over family, as difficult as it was for her to do. (To hear her story, listen to audio homily).
But that isn’t the
full story of St. Dymphna. But before going on with it, I want to recall
another strange thing Jesus says to us today.
He informs us that he wants to set a blazing fire on the earth! This fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, who
enables us to maintain the priority of our relationship with Christ. And by
doing so, the Spirit empowers us to influence others and be a force for good in
our surroundings. This is what Jesus means by setting the fire ablaze. The fire unleashed through St. Dymphna in the
village of Geel is still burning 1,500 years after her martyrdom, which brings
us to the rest of her amazing story. (Listen
to audio homily for the rest of her story)
By clinging jealously
to our relationship with Christ like St. Dymphna did, and by opening our hearts
to the fire-power of the Spirit, we can move out of our mediocrity and lukewarm
existence as Christians. We can be truly transformed from the inside out and
become instruments of peace and justice, leaving our mark in the world just as
she did.
For more information about St. Dymphna, prayers and
religious articles of her, go to this link to her National Shrine in the USA: https://natlshrinestdymphna.org/site/
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