Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
In the past few weeks, we have been following various stories in the book of Genesis. This week, we begin reading from the book of Exodus. The set-up for today’s passage comes in the figure of Joseph, who, you might recall, became a trusted advisor of Pharaoh, able to save many lives through his judicious economy with grain. The Egyptian king of Joseph’s time was grateful for his contributions and allowed for Joseph’s family to take up residence in Egypt. Now, however, the current Pharaoh has started to question the worth of Joseph’s descendants. He finds their great number threatening, and he clearly still regards them as foreigners. Hence the Pharaoh makes a plan to decrease the perceived threat; he will make the Hebrew people work hard and he will kill all their infant boys. This, of course, is the set-up for our next big figure, namely, Moses. For if Joseph can be said to have led the Hebrews to Egypt, Moses is the man to lead them out from their oppression there. What we see in this first reading, then, is not peace. The golden age of Egyptian-Hebrew cooperation and sympathy has ended. The new era has dawned, and it is a time where those who believe in the one true God will be persecuted as foreigners.
Today’s gospel passage from Matthew, meanwhile, is one of those passages that is always so hard to reconcile with our everyday understanding of our faith. Why would Jesus say that he has come to sow division rather than bring peace? Why would he want to divide families?
If we focus endlessly on these questions, then we might miss the point of what Jesus is saying. In truth, belief in Jesus did divide some families; St. Perpetua, an early Christian, was begged (and even assaulted) by her father to disown her faith rather than suffer martyrdom. But the point here is not that Jesus wants us to fight with our family members. Rather, Jesus wants us to recognize that being a disciple demands sacrifice. It is not a cozy, comfortable life to be a true disciple of Jesus. Instead it is a constant feeling of not-peace. We must continually remind ourselves that what matters in this life is Jesus, and hence we must take up our crosses and follow him. Again, this is not a peaceful, easy feeling. It is a persistent calling to mind of our beliefs and attempting to align our lives accordingly. It is the acknowledgment that we often fail. Our fights with family are unfortunately more often due to our own sinfulness rather than our commitment to discipleship.
But in the midst of this sentiment of not-peace, we have reason for hope. Just as we read our first reading from Exodus and know that God will save the Hebrew people in the exodus through the person of Moses, so we know that, despite all of our sinfulness, God has saved us, is saving us, and will save us through the person of Jesus. Jesus may not have brought peace in the simplified way we like to think of it, but Jesus has brought salvation. Like the first disciples, we are called to witness to this in our everyday life – to preach by our actions, most especially in accepting our crosses and bearing them as cheerfully as we can, to the extent that we can.
Today, try to think about one difficulty in your life right now – maybe financially, or personally, or otherwise. How might you accept this feeling of not-peace and accept it as a cross that you might join your sufferings to Christ?
- Maria Morrow