OT XX [C] Jer 38: 4-6, 8-10; Heb 12: 1-4; Lk 12: 49-53

In the 1920s, an English adventurer named Mallory led an expedition to conquer Mount Everest. His first, second and even his third attempt with an experienced team met with failure. Upon his return to England, the few who had survived held a banquet to salute Mallory and those who had perished. As he stood up to speak he looked around he saw picture frames of himself and those who had died. Then he turned his back on the crowd and faced a large picture of Mount Everest looming large like an unbeatable giant. With tears streaming down his face, he spoke to the mountain on behalf of his dead friends. “I speak to you Mt. Everest, in the name of all brave men living, and those yet unborn. Mt. Everest, you defeated us once, you defeated us twice; you defeated us three times. But Mt. Everest, we shall someday defeat you, because you can’t get any bigger, but we can.” Today’s Scripture challenges us to confront the world with prophetic courage of our Christian convictions.

The central theme of today’s readings is that we should courageously live out our religious convictions and principles in our lives, as Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus did theirs, even if doing so should result in our martyrdom and turn society upside down.   If no one is ever offended by the quality of our commitment to Christ, that commitment may not be authentic, and if our individual and communal living of the Good News casts no fire and causes no division, then perhaps we are practicing “inoffensive Christianity."  

Jeremiah, in our First Reading, is presented as experiencing the consequences of the burning word of God within him. Jeremiah's preaching divided the city and incited such opposition that people sought his death. He showed the courage of his prophetic conviction by telling King Zedekiah that the Lord God said he had to surrender to the mighty army of Babylonian empire to save Israel.  The result was that Jeremiah was thrown into a deep, muddy cistern to die for his "treason." Standing in this prophetic tradition, Paul, in the second reading, challenges the Judeo-Christians to stand firm in their Faith in Jesus, ignoring the ostracism imposed on them by their own former Jewish community.  Jesus, too, in today’s Gospel, preaches the word of God which continues to divide families, a word which, he knew, would ultimately lead to his death.  The fire Jesus came to bring is the fire of love and the fire of hope.  

In Christianity, the loyalty to Christ has to take precedence over the dearest loyalties of this earth.  Standing up for what is right, working for justice and truth are higher aims than unity, and working for those aims will sometimes cause division.  Hence, Christians today may cause division and rouse opposition because they share through their Baptism the prophetic charism of speaking God’s word, no matter how unpopular; and of giving a voice to those who have no one to speak for them.

There was this amateur naturalist who saw a cocoon. This naturalist saw a butterfly struggling to get out of that cocoon. The butterfly was struggling to get out of the cocoon and was just about ready to break out of that cocoon. The amateur naturalist was closely watching as this miracle unfolded. Then, the naturalist did a very dumb thing. He took out his pocket knife and he slit the cocoon so that the butterfly did not have to struggle. The butterfly came out but could not fly around because it had no perfect wings. It develops its wings from the juice that comes from the body while struggling to get out of the cocoon.

Many parents make the same mistake in parenting, where the parents cut the cocoon and make it easier for the children to grow up, protecting their children from difficult struggles, and thereby the children never develop the inner strength that is learned through struggle.

So it is with Christianity. Christianity always involves struggle, whereby a person becomes a strong disciple. It is only through struggles that a person becomes strong spiritually or strong emotionally. That is why Jesus said: if anyone likes to follow me, take up his cross and follow me.

Every righteous man was resisted by the forces of evil. Because their mission was not to compromise but to challenge and change, their words came like a double edged sword to the forces of evil.

This is the exact mission of the Church and of every Christian. We are called not for a life of compromise but for a life of challenge and we have a rich tradition in this regard. Our martyrs and saints upheld this mission and stood for truth and justice. Today, following this tradition we have to stand for justice, keeping in mind that resistance and challenge will be part of our life.

Today more than ever, we need charismatic and fearless Christians to take up this challenge; to do the little that we can in our homes, in our work place, and in our society. Let us ask God to give us strength and courage to resist our inner conflict and stand by justice regardless of its consequences.

May the Holy Spirit kindle in us His fire to burn in us the courage of our Christian convictions.