In today’s Gospel Story (Luke 12:49-53) Jesus talks about bringing division, not peace. In the First Reading Jeremiah comes close to losing his life because the rulers did not like what he said. The majority report sees this Gospel passage as a warning that Jesus’ Gospel message will never be totally popular and there will always be people who do not like it. Being Jesus’ disciple is no easy thing. Living the Gospel can be painful and expensive.
This certainly has happened a lot throughout history and still is happening. Division seems to be a trait not just of christianity, but also of many other religious traditions. Wars have been fought over these divisions. In Old Testament times prophets like Jeremiah who spoke Yahweh’s world to the people and rulers often paid a high price. Something about Abba’s unconditional love bothers people. We don’t mind Abba’s mercy as long as we get to determine who Abba is merciful to. While it is very real, the notion of “pleasing God” often becomes a tool for traditions that claim theirs is the only way for us to “please God”. These traditions differ among themselves, which complicates matters.
The minority report can be as personal as I want it to be, or not. The Gospel always speaks to us through the filter of what is going on in our life when we hear or read it, so there can be different understandings for each of us. I am living in a nice apartment, and have some age and health issues as many of us do. Not too far from me immigrants are being mistreated, abused, arrested, deported, imprisoned, kids are being trafficked, LGBTQ+ sisters and brothers are being discriminated against and punished, violence is increasing, shootings are becoming almost routine. History is repeating itself. A friend just now sent me this sentence: “For those who love God, everything is a grace”, something I really believe. “Abba, what are you saying here? I suspect Abba might be asking me to live what I believe. I just don’t know how. I cannot touch or hide behind world events, but I can touch how I live locally.
For my part, I need some sort of a prayer practice to help me stay focused on Jesus and his Gospel so I don’t get caught up in the divisions and forget the Gospel. Practices such as the Welcoming Prayer (“I welcome everything that comes into my life today because hit is of you, Abba”) offer the awareness, and perhaps the experience, of being part of the oneness. Every day living shows us how difficult this is. The Prayer leads us beyond the need to control so much of our daily living, to be aware of Abba happening in our life. One of the things that seems to happen with a prayer practice like the Welcoming Prayer and other similar exercises is we come to see ourselves as an important and necessary part of a much larger whole, a much larger oneness that is good. As with so many other experiences on the spiritual journey we find it hard to put into words just what this is so we go back to various church dogmas to help us attain some insight. These might be such as Mystical Body, Creation Story, image and likeness of Abba, and so on. These become practical for us as they offer insight to what really is.
Something that becomes very obvious is Abba is not “out there”, but is very much in and with us as we are in and with Abba. As we we begin to be aware of ourselves as reflections of Abba, the way we understand others in our life begins to change, to deepen, and it might be a shock. Our families, our circles of friends, acquaintances, people we deal with every day, expand our awareness of the oneness of Abba that we all exist in. Whether others agree with us does not matter as we learn from others and from our experiences that this oneness is real and the basis of everything. This leads us to the realization that there is no such thing as “other”. Each of us is a part of the whole, and an important and necessary part of this oneness in which we all exist. This doesn’t mean we all have to agree on everything. While I might have to choose how to deal with someone else’s choices and actions, I can never judge them personally as other or less than myself. We both reflect Abba somehow. This can be difficult.
While I have to recognize there are divisions, often with a high level of anger, do I have to be angry, bitter, and impose my bitterness on others? I do not have the right to judge anyone, yet I have to say that when I see the way some of my former students and some of my friends I’ve known for a while talk and post about others with whom they disagree, I feel disappointed and ashamed, but that’s my problem. GEN Colin Powell used to say, “Don’t get so identified with your ideas that when they get shot down, you get shot down with them”. A worthwhile question in everything that is going on in my life is, “Abba, what are you saying to me in this setting, this situation, this person, these feelings?”. How do I react to others’ bitter anger? Still working on that one. What can I do that will most reflect Jesus’ values? How can I reflect Jesus in whatever I am choosing to do? What is the greater good in whatever situation I am facing?
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!’.” Much of what Jesus taught does not fit with current government policies or business practices. The suffering around the world makes this very clear. As I’ve been told many times, there is a fairly popular school of thought that says the gospel is okay for church but not for the real world. So, what to do? In all the nastiness happening all over, Abba is happening. I am exactly where I need to be, as each of us is. Am I letting Jesus’ word set me on fire, whatever this might mean for me? With my age and health these days, there is not much I can do, but I can’t let this be a cop out. More questioning, I guess. Wandering and wondering. Just sayin . . .