Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time-C
Time to gird our loins. The Lord says, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” At the outset, we must remember that what he means by division has to be placed in context. We must reject the notion that God wants division; quite the contrary, the mission of Jesus was to bring unity to a world broken by sin. The will of God is uniting himself with his creatures, and he proves the point by sending his Son to reconcile the world to himself.
So, if God wants unity with his people, why must we hear about the most challenging part of today’s reading? Jesus hits close to the bone when he mentions the division that will start in our own families. A father will have problems with his son, and a son with his father. Mothers will have conflicts with their daughters, their daughters’ issues with their mothers, and so on. No matter how you spin it, the result of these ruptured relationships is not good.
Families live this reality daily, with children at odds with their parents or siblings and vice versa. No family is without these problems, no matter what some people want to convince you of. Disharmony is an epidemic in modern families. Did Jesus predict what we are experiencing on our own, or is he trying to make us see the reality of why there are problems?
The deeper meaning of Jesus’ words is the inevitability of whether a disciple chooses to live a life in the truth. More than believing in Jesus as the Son of God, Christianity is adherence to him above and beyond all others. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. As disciples, we need to hear and incorporate the truth into our lives, no matter how difficult. This is the crux of Christianity, knowing the truth personified in Christ and integrating it into our lives.
In the movie A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson, playing a military lawyer, shouts his iconic phrase, “You can’t handle the truth.” The sentiment is alive and well in plenty of relationships. Those who choose to follow Jesus, who is the truth, will conflict with the falsehoods of those who reject it. Folks need not look past their own family to experience this dynamic.
Parents will recognize it when their children, who were raised in the faith, lose it when they become adults. By rejecting the faith, the conflict between the mother, father, and their child results in a division between them. Some level of separation is inevitable unless one forgoes their faith, too. How many young adults raised as Catholics feel no qualms about cohabitation, and if they choose to marry, do it outside of the Church? If you are a believer, how can conflict and division not exist to some extent?
Then there is the rampant lack of respect young people have for their parents. Today, using a disrespectful tone to speak to parents or elders would have been unimaginable a generation ago. Or, grandchildren are withheld from visits for this reason or another. Honoring father and mother seems no longer commanded by God or a virtue. Other non-parent-child relationships can have problems as well. Some family members cause trouble because of money or other reasons. They have also forgotten that they must be honest, charitable, and loving to one another.
Before one goes off on what has been suggested, the conflict between the parents and children or family members causing disharmony does not mean they should not be loved. Christians can love their children and relatives while not agreeing with their decisions to live outside what Jesus has asked us to do.
When Jesus came to earth to show us how we should live, his mission was to tell us the truth and help us live it out as best we can through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Christianity is the religious practice of the Truth, and conflict will arise when it interacts with those who reject the truth or follow “their own truth.”
Unlike the movie, which contends that people cannot handle the truth, the more exact interpretation is that they do not want to handle it. If you take your faith seriously and follow God’s word, you will experience what Jesus teaches us today: that he will come to set the world on fire. Instead of being fearful, we should welcome the incendiary flames to purge us from any falsehoods we may hold. And then cleansed, we can help convince our family and friends to do the same.