Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
I tend to be a peacemaker, one who avoids conflict and tries to keep the peace. I took on that role growing up in my family of origin, and I carried in with me into my adulthood. I have had to learn and continue to work on risking disturbing the peace or status quo in some situations in order to speak the truth and stand up for what is right, even if that means creating what appears to be conflict or division. I’m sill often not very good at it; I’d much rather “keep the peace,” but sometimes as disciples of Jesus we are called to question and disturb the status quo.
Today’s gospel reading (Luke 12: 49-53) speaks of this as Jesus asks his disciples, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” This is one of those startling sayings of Jesus in the Gospels. A similar verse is found in Matthew’s gospel (10: 34), “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”
Surely Jesus is not advocating violence, (in fact he spoke and lived a life of non-violence) but is speaking metaphorically to his disciples about the challenges of following him that will bring conflict and division in some cases. He is probably referring to the division that would arise especially as the people in power were opposed to Jesus’ new values and way of life that did not fit into the status quo. The “sword” Jesus refers to is that which will divide the eager from the contented. Jesus did not “keep the peace” in that sense.
And being a follower of Jesus does sometimes cause division within families as well. The early Christians had to be willing to give up all of their attachments in order to follow Jesus. Those attachments may have been wealth for some, family for others, a secure job or social status for others yet. Are we called to let go of these same attachments today? In a different way?
Today’s gospel reading also references a verse from this past Sunday’s gospel (Mark 10: 38) in which Jesus tells James and John that they do not know what they are asking when they request being seated at Jesus’ left and right when he comes into his glory. He responds with the question posed to them, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” referring to his forthcoming suffering and death on the cross. Are we like James and John, hoping to share in Christ’s glory without drinking the cup along with him?
What attachments do we have today that we are being called to let go of for the sake of discipleship? Are we willing to give up our own “contentment” to follow Jesus? I pray that I can be among the “eager.”
This call to discipleship may seem somewhat daunting, but we can find hope in today’s first reading (Ephesians 3: 14-21) in which we are encouraged by Paul’s letter that “rooted and grounded in love” we may “know the love of Christ…who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine…” May we know that love and remain rooted and grounded in it so that the Spirit can work in us to accomplish much more than we can imagine.
Eileen Miller