Twentieth Sunday in OT C  2019

Jesus said to his disciples:  “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”...  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

This Gospel imperative runs in the face of a more compassionate pastoral approach to ministry.  To become a member of the Church of the Holy Spirit, you simply need to be breathing and fill out a census card.  It is very, very easy.  I try to short circuit the hoops that people sometimes need to go through in the Catholic Church.  My mother taught me always to be kind and trust that God’s love will be revealed.

If your body is in the Church today, you get a gold star from me as being a very active member of Holy Spirit.  After all, there are many parishioners who are not here today.  It’s still summer.  So, congratulations.

However, however, I am not the final word on discipleship of the Lord Jesus.   Jesus is!  Jesus, of course, is the Savior and Lord of our lives.  For Jesus, being here on Sunday is just the beginning of our discipleship.  There is much more expected of me and much more to be expected of you.   Jesus expected the same prophetic fire that burned in him to burn also in the hearts of his followers.

You may have heard the expression “cheap grace.”  This is the grace we seek as Catholics without ever troubling ourselves about the need to move beyond our comfort zone in the ways we live out the message of Jesus.  The truth is there is no such thing as cheap grace.

In answering the call to follow Jesus, we are in for rude awakening as to the cost of discipleship.  We need to look no further than the crucifix to witness the extent of the giving love of Jesus.  He gave us His life.  The cost of discipleship for us is to witness to the kind of giving love that Jesus has given us.

As we read in today’s Gospel, Jesus has come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”

The flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  We need to be advocates for the peace and justice that characterizes a Gospel way of living.  But also the fire of this love is that fire that also warms and comforts.  Jesus is a God of mercy and compassion.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.   None of us get a free pass from reflecting on the cost of discipleship.

As a priest today, in the midst of the dark cloud of clergy sexual abuse and where there is considerable anger in the Church, I ask myself where is God to be found?  Maybe, just maybe, the Church is in need of purification. I think back 51 years when I was first ordained a priest, quite frankly, perhaps, that was a time of privilege for priests.  It was far easier to live the Gospel and to be a priest.  For some, you were held up on a pedestal.  Now is another time in a darker chapter of the Church, it is more challenging to be a priest.  It is not a time of clerical privilege; in fact, there can be a suspicious attitude toward the clerical lifestyle.  We stand in need of purification. 

In a curious way, this is an opportunity for me and the whole Church to be a follower of Christ crucified --- the Jesus who was mocked and scourged and given a crown of thorns and died an ignominious death.

Never confuse God – or what is holy – with current cultural religion which worships the included, the glamorous, the ones who aren’t shamed and ridiculed, and the ones who seem important and indispensable. 

The God we worship is the God who died on the cross and was hated and spat upon.

Where is God?  God is on the side of the victim, standing with the one who is excluded, and specially present in the one being ridiculed and dying and in the one who is being put to death.

The truth is we are all sinners.  Imagine yourself in conversation with Jesus, what truths do you need to share with Jesus about your need for God’s forgiveness – what about our failure to share more fully with those who are in need; how much of our income do we tithe; do we have time for God in our prayer life or are too busy; what kind of judgments or gossip are hurtful to others; how selfish are we in using our God-given gift of sexuality?

Thanks be to God, the truth of our life is also that God forgives any and all of our sinfulness and invites to rejoice and trust in God’s healing love for us. 

The truth is to belong to the faith community of Holy Spirit demands much more that filling out a registration card.  It is the commitment to make Jesus the center of our life and to be sent forth to proclaim the love of Jesus in all we say and do.

May we pray:  Holy Spirit, flame of God, hover over each of us as you did for the followers of Jesus at the first Pentecost. 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Again, the flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  And the fire of this love is that fire that also warms and comforts.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

What is the grace that you ask for today?  Ask the Lord to enkindle within you the fire of God’s love.

Have a Blessed Day.

Have a Blessed Day.