Choose a Side

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

There are two parts to today’s Gospel and if we are not careful, we may casually conflate the two and imagine that our Lord is some kind of a sick arsonist wannabe who is announcing his proposed terrorist act of burning everything to cinder and ashes. The first part which sounds more incendiary (forgive the pun) is actually the more innocent of the two.

When our Lord speaks of bringing fire to earth, it is spoken in the light of a more benign Promethean mission that will benefit earthly mortals, rather than how the prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to incinerate his enemies. This fire which our Lord is referring to is used in a metaphorical sense, and we immediately see its connexion with baptism which our Lord mentions in the next line. St John the Baptist had earlier prophesied regarding the One who is coming, who would “baptise… with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). The combination of fire and baptism looks forward to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when the disciples will be baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit. So, there is nothing insidious about our Lord’s announcement here. He has not come to end the world but inaugurate a new epoch. His mission is not to destroy but to invigorate, to literally set the world and His disciples on fire, with zeal for the Kingdom. Our Lord then makes another connexion between the baptism He must receive with His passion and death.

After this announcement, our Lord starts to announce how His mission and gospel will necessarily bring about division, even among household relationships which are the bedrock of society. The reason for this is because the Lord Jesus has come as a sign of contradiction. Remember the prophecy of Simeon to the parents of the infant Jesus: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted…” (Luke 2:34).

The list of household relationships which will be split by their changing alliances with Jesus and the gospel is a fulfilment of Micah 7:6, the last line of which is directly reproduced and paraphrased in today’s Gospel: "For the son dishonours the father; the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household." (Micah 7:6) Rabbis would later interpret Micah 7:6 as the fulfilment of the Messianic age. This means that one of the signs by which we will know that the Messianic age has begun, would be the emergence of cracks and divisions within families and society.

The effect of the Messiah’s coming would be to cause division, as some chose to believe and follow, while others did not, even splitting families in their allegiance. The truth of the Gospel has the power to deeply unite us to God when we fully accept it as the Word of Truth. But another effect is that it divides us from those who refuse to be united to God in the Truth. People are, therefore, forced to make a choice between loyalty to God and towards family. A person who decides to follow Christ must come to terms that he/she will face persecution for his/her faith. At best they will be ridiculed, and at worst, they may be martyred.

Our culture today wants to preach what we call “relativism.” This ideology is very appealing because it argues that if we are to get along with each other, we must go along with the mainstream culture. This is an idea that, what is good and true for me may not be good and true for you, but that in spite of us all having different “truths,” we can still all be one happy family. But how can something be objectively true for some but not for others. Something is true because it has always been true and will always be true. To deny this is a lie, and any unity which is built on a lie, is also a lie. Our Lord was rejected because He did not subscribe to this lie and we should not be surprised if that happens to us, too.

We often assume that peace making is peacekeeping, but they are not the same thing. We prefer peacekeeping to avoid arguments because we assume conflict is undesirable, unpredictable, and uncomfortable—something shameful or even sinful. But peacekeeping is actually founded on a lie. Peacekeeping is when we keep our feelings suppressed, we keep our thoughts repressed, and we keep our tongues stuck to the roof of our mouths because we might say the wrong thing and end up in an unwanted conflict.

It is important to note that conflict in itself is not a sin, anger as an emotion is not evil, and making right judgments is not bad judgment. Such judgment is often the pathway to making peace. Truth is not painless, honesty is not easy, and facing reality does not come naturally. Therefore, peace is made; sometimes by going through conflict, not by sidestepping it. Conflict rises from differences in what persons value. Naturally, there will be conflict between those who subscribe to gospel values and those who don’t. To avoid conflict at all cost means that one must ultimately compromise our deepest values. That would be fine if we discover that these values are wrong or misplaced. But compromising values whilst knowing that they are right, is the greatest betrayal to truth. That is why peacekeeping is the safe choice but it is not the wise one. Peacekeeping is sacrificing truth at the altar of a false and tenuous peace. Many had stood by silently while atrocities have been committed.

It is inevitable that there will be conflict between good and evil, the Christ and the antichrist, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, the children of God and the children of the devil. In this conflict, we cannot remain neutral. We must choose sides. The stakes are exceedingly high if you choose to side with the Lord and with the Truth. It will entail rejection by family and friends, humiliation and persecution by the world. It will entail the cross.