Sermon: I have come to bring fire on earth not peace – says Jesus

In the liturgy of the 20th Sunday with the following readings: Jeremiah 38:4–6, 8–10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49–57, we meditate on the words of Jesus which have left a frightening echo on earth ever since he mentioned them more than two thousand years ago. At that time, Jesus cleared his throat and said: “I have come to bring fire on earth. Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” This kind of tough talk by the greatest teacher the world has ever known did not instill fear in its first hearers only but in all subsequent generations to the present. A lot has been said by a number of biblical commentators whose main findings point a finger to the Old Testament image of fire as judgment. Hence Jesus meant that his gospel message brings judgment in society and division resulting from its acceptance, or rejection. It is a struggle to accept the Gospel and live by it and Jesus was putting it straight that if you go in search of honey, you must expect to encounter bees. This is therefore a message which invites us today, to consider the struggle and difficulty inherent in being a Christian. The path of following Christ is one of contradiction and difficulty in every time and place, and if we are not living with that tension, it is perhaps because we are living without complete authenticity as a follower of Christ. And here lies the irony of looking at a Christian life as a struggle which is in its sweetness. In fact, it proves the common understanding that sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. That is how Christianity as a struggle makes us stronger than what we would have been without it and leaves no room for regrets. Following Christ should cost us all something dear. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of the division and struggle that will come as a result of his preaching and mission, and the difficulties his followers will face. His mission is not to smooth over differences but rather a radical call to a total self transformation to the fullness of the truth. This kind of radicalism is due to the fact that the Gospel will always find resistance in this world due to the prevalence of human weakness coupled with man’s strong tendency of self justification. That is why Christian life will always have meaning only as a struggle whose triumph is in the ability to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the truth of his message in all its integrity. And Jesus reassures us that everyone who lives Christianity to the full, lives a struggle and the world opposes him. He says: “no servant is greater than his master… if they have persecuted me, so too they will persecute you.” The common temptation for Christians is to have it the peaceful way. What if we do not have the strength it takes? Like all struggles, the real strength does not come from winning. It is during the struggle itself that strength is developed. When we go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is when we are strong. Otherwise, we are tempted to look for a comfortable Christianity, one which “fits in” with the culture and the world around us, so that we may live in peace with everyone. This is not Christianity. True Christianity is the same struggle in which Christ came to challenge our human culture and call it to convert from sin to grace, to turn back to the love of the Father. All our attempts to “water down” this message of Christ in order to make it more socially acceptable shall always leave us with a Christ we cannot recognize. That is a Christ made over in our own weak and wounded image, whom we want to manipulate so that he may side with us in our mistakes. True Christianity leaves us with one option; to embrace the truth that living the Gospel of Christ is a struggle which has nothing to do with popularity because if we are faithful to God in things that the world rejects or minimizes, we might at times appear as counter-cultural, or irrelevant. But that is what Jesus meant when he said: “if you give witness to me before men, then I will witness to you before the Father” on Judgment Day. That is why a Christian should carry on his or her life whispering to himself or herself the words of Harvey Keitel: The way I see things, the way I see life, I see it as a struggle. And there is a great deal of reward I have gained coming to that understanding — that existence is a struggle. Ends