You are free to choose, but you are not free not to choose.
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Sunday, Aug. 17, is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mass readings: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53.
The Gospel Jesus speaks vividly of his own mission to engage our ancient foe and to gather God’s elect back from the enslaving clutches of Satan, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning (see John 8:44). He seeks to work in our life by the glorious fire of his Holy Spirit if we but let him. And yet, not all do want the Lord to work. Some prefer the darkness to the light of God’s truth. Some prefer sin to grace, and choose the world, not the Kingdom of Heaven. There must be a sorting out.
Jesus begins by saying, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”
The Lord has come to purify us, by the fiery power of His Holy Spirit. This image of fire is important, as fire must burn away sin and purify us. And indeed, the Lord sent forth his Spirit on the early Church as tongues of fire (Acts 2:3) so as to bring them up to the temperature of glory and to prepare them for the coming judgment of the world by fire.
The text says, “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”
Jesus does not sit in some comfortable headquarters behind the front lines — he goes to the hill of Calvary and leads us over the top to the Resurrection glory. He endures every blow, every hardship on our behalf. And through his wounds we are healed by being baptized into his very Body. As such we too have a share in his sufferings.
The Lord says, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
The words shock but they speak a truth that sets aside worldly notions of compromise and coexistence with evil. There is a kind of analogy to a surgeon’s scalpel. The surgeon must wield this “sword” to separate out healthy flesh from that which is diseased. Coexistence is not possible; the diseased flesh has to go. And thus, in terms of this world, there cannot be a false peace based on compromise or an accepting coexistence. There is a division that must be seen for what it is: Either love the world or love the Lord. You are free to choose, but you are not free not to choose. And this division extends into our very families. Choose sides!
This article was originally published on National Catholic Register.
Msgr. Charles Pope is currently a dean and pastor in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, where he has served on the Priest Council, the College of Consultors, and the Priest Personnel Board. Along with publishing a daily blog at the Archdiocese of Washington website, he has written in pastoral journals, conducted numerous retreats for priests and lay faithful, and has also conducted weekly Bible studies in the U.S. Congress and the White House. He was named a Monsignor in 2005.
