If Not For Peace Then For What?

A challenge!

What rings a bell is the teaching that we find in CCC#2304ff.

You cannot be at peace if you have not eaten, you cannot be at peace if you are worried about the bills and school fees. You cannot be at peace if you are sick. What is Jesus saying today?

Here I offer what I personally regard as the easiest way of understanding what Jesus says in Luke 12v.49-53.

We have to ask ourselves these questions along with many others that will arise in minds today:

What did Jesus come for, if not for peace?

What divisions will take place, or can take place, or have taken place in a household of five?

What FIRE is blazing here on earth?

As we delve into these issues, we need not risk or confuse people on what matters in the context this passage. And a simple question is key: What did he really mean? What could the PRINCE OF PEACE MEAN BY DIVISIONS?

We know that peace is required for our own safety and development. And to maintain a minimum amount of this peace we require at least that there be basic human needs for all of us.

We cannot be at peace with an empty stomach. A hungry person is not a peaceful person they say, but an angry person. Poverty therefore disturb peace.

We cannot be at peace when in hospital, or even when our loved ones are in hospital. For we feel our own pain and the pain of others and our peace goes. Diseases and sicknesses robes us of peace.

Speaking in the same line, we can say that a thirsty person; a person without clothes, a person with worries about bills, fees etc. and a person without safety has no peace.

Today, some experts are even saying that one cannot be at peace without the internet (Facebook, tweeter, WhatsApp etc.) and I think, this is definitely true also.

Look at how lovers get troubled, look at we get troubled when we have not read a text or received a phone call from their loved ones. I knew of my friends dad who always thought that the phone was dead whenever his son forgot to phone him. He used to take it to a phone repair shop until someone calls.

NOW let us revisit the rhetorical question of Jesus: "Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?" and let us also move our eyes slightly above and read this> "There is a BAPTISM with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is ACCOMPLISHED!

As we do this, let us again ask ourselves here, if not for peace then for what, then for what BAPTISM must Jesus be baptized.

Is it not a baptism that set him on a mission to heal the sick, to share his love with us, to communicate with us, to feed the hungry, to free prisoners, to heal our wounds and forgive our sins.

Is this not the same FIRE he has set on earth for his true disciples?

We can only say no, if begin to think that our desires for true happiness or that our wish to make this world a better place are our own initiatives. But if we take a moment and open our spiritual eyes and read the direction of human history through the eyes of faith, we can say YES and affirm certainly that the earth is on FIRE! If we entered into the spiritual and saw the pains that we have gone through to reach where we are as people, we can certainly say yes. There has been a fire burning and crying for liberation and love. A fire to reach out to others more. A fire for truth, respect, justice and above all love.

So once again, Yes! and how great is this anguish of Jesus until it is ACCOMPLISHED.
How great until the Son of God can declare, as he declared on the CROSS that "it is accomplished".

We never rested nor slumbers and we don't rest until we are there.

Until his promise that "I have come so that you may have life in abundance" is sealed and consummated.

So the Son of God, who is also the prince of peace, does not promise peace, especially to his followers, He does NOT also promote WAR, and this is what this text is saying (do that is to put words into the mouth of Jesus).

Jesus, the Son of God, rather promises suffering, anguish and pain for a good cause in this world. He asks us to make a sacrifice to accomplish. In another passage He makes it even more clear. He says that if the world hated me, they will hate you too. If the world did this to me, what more will it do to you. If it rejected me, it will reject you.

So here is the point, people of LOVE are never at peace, they do not sleep when they see others suffer. Love does not promise a quiet life, a peaceful life but rather sacrifice and courage. And this is the spirit and fire we have.

If not for peace, then for LOVE because LOVE is that FIRE. Instead of looking for peace, look for love. And as you do, know that love will divide and separate you in a household of five: those who love from those who hurt (the sheep and the goats if you like)

And this is called the cost of discipleship: suffering for others, helping others, not  being peace in the sense of not fighting for the welfare of others... not being at peace and nice to be liked by the perpetrators of evil. Not preserving yourself as we learned last Sunday.

We asked ourselves these questions and we can now answer them together in the context of the whole three readings:

What did Jesus come for, if not for peace?

What divisions will take place, or can take place, or has taken place already in a household of five?

What FIRE is blazing or should blaze here on earth?

Through a cross examination of the first reading which says: “Jeremiah ought to be put to death; he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them; and even the second reading: "Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, I offer the following spiritual bullets.

1. Jesus came to save and not be served... to give his life as a ransom for many (TO LOVE)

2. He was opposed by many, and even killed for his LOVE. And this can take place and this is what we have in the FIRST READING Cf., Jeremiah the Prophet 38:4-10) and the SECOND.

The division is taking place in the house of five: eg., in the society, in our families, in us, that is where the division is. two camps everywhere, the good and bad. So it will happen, it is happening even within ourselves as individuals. The good news is that good will defeat evil in the end.

3. LOVE is that fire that should blaze.

Why did Jesus come? Jesus explains why he came, and why we struggle for what purpose.

Sometimes we forget that He came... to separate us from sin, from death, evil, from many things..

God bless you!