August 14, 2022, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
There is no doubt that Jesus came into the world to preach about God’s love for creation and the way in which we should embody that love in our relationships with others. In fact, Jesus preached that the greatest of the commandments are “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37.39). Yet today’s readings seem to depict the opposite, the harsh reality which sometimes occurs when living the Gospel.
We see it first in the reading from Jeremiah (Jer. 38:4-6, 8-10) who was one of God’s faithful prophets. Scripture tells us that Jeremiah was prechosen by God to minister to the people of Israel: “The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations, I appointed you” (Jer. 1:4-5).
One would think that this special call from God would make Jeremiah’s mission an easy one, that he would be able to preach to the people in such a way as to bring them loyally back to the Lord. But this was not the case. From the very beginning, Jeremiah’s life was wrought with conflict. The people did not listen to him, rather they ridiculed and rejected him; and his friends embittered him with betrayal (Jer. 20:7-10). He was accused of treason, beaten, and placed in a dungeon cell for many days (Jer. 37:11-16).
Today’s First Reading, which takes place during the period of the Babylonian exile, describes in detail the way in which the princes of King Zedekiah plotted against Jeremiah and planned to put him to death. They claimed that he was “demoralizing the soldiers and the people left in the city, not interested in their welfare, but in their ruin” (Jer. 38:4). Defenseless against Jeremiah’s accusers, the king handed him into their power after which they lowered him into a cistern filled with mud.
Knowing that Jeremiah would die of starvation, one of his supporters, a court official named Ebed-melech, obtained permission from the king to release Jeremiah. So Ebed-melech took three men along with him to draw the prophet out of the cistern before he could drown. Jeremiah remained in Jerusalem and continued his preaching under duress until the final conquest by Babylon, at which time he was exiled into Egypt.
The continuation of conflict in the name of the Lord also carried on into the first century AD, during the time of Jesus. In the Gospel for today (Lk. 12:49-53) Jesus speaks candidly about the way in which his message will be a source of controversy and dissension even within families. “A household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Lk. 12:52-53).
Jesus claims that he has come to establish division rather than peace on the earth through the process of a refining and purifying fire. But this fire of the kingdom is not a fire in the true sense of the word. Rather this fire is representative of the Holy Spirit for which Jesus awaits with anguish until it is accomplished by the power of his crucifixion and resurrection and, subsequently, given to the disciples at Pentecost.
This is the very same fire, the power of the Holy Spirit, which we as Christians receive at Baptism and later are strengthened through the Sacrament of Confirmation. And it is regularly available to us at Mass during the Eucharist. This fire gives us the confidence and ability to spread the word of Christ every time we leave the doors of the Church. It reinforces our faith in the resurrection and intensifies our zeal to spread the Christian message. According to the Second Reading (Heb 12:1-4), “it enables us to dedicate our lives to Jesus, to rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus” (Heb 12:1).
Of course, this is something which is not easily done. We have day to day activities which distract us with the preoccupations of this world. And we have events in our lives which interfere with the presence of the Lord. But we can follow the advice of our Responsorial Psalm and wait for the Lord to come to our aid and deliver us from affliction, to draw us from the pit of destruction and come to us as we plead for his intercession: “You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, hold not back! “Lord, come to my aid!” (Ps. 40: 14b,17).
