“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 earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Luke 12: 49-56
Early in his Gospel, Luke recorded what took place in the Temple in Jerusalem when Mary and Joseph, in accord with the requirements of the Law, followed the prescribed ritual and presented their infant son to the Lord. They encountered Anna and Simeon, two elderly and faithful Temple stalwarts, who were convinced that the child they saw was the fulfilment of the dream they and all the people of the Jewish nation had for centuries been longing. Buoyed by his emotions and prompted by the Spirit of God, Simeon took the child in his arms, prayed in gratitude for the privilege he had been granted, and predicted that the baby in his arms would grow to be a cause of conflict and dissention among the people of the Jewish nation and, in the process, bring grief to his mother, Mary (Luke 2: 22-35). The gospel-reading of the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time is Luke’s confirmation of Simeon’s prediction.
Having set his course for Jerusalem, Jesus, according to Luke, was becoming increasingly aware of the mounting opposition to him and his teaching. Towards the end of today’s gospel-reading, Luke describes how Jesus expressed the character of his mission through the metaphors of fire and division. He had no doubt that both he and his message would challenge those who came to listen to him, especially the religious leaders, the formulators of religious ritual and practice, whose positions and comfort were threatened by him. Jesus had made it clear that there was no room for fence-sitting among those who wanted to follow him.
All of us who have been baptised have been invited on a lifelong journey into Christian faith. It is an invitation into a relationship with Jesus and a lifelong induction into his Gospel, in the company of all our sisters and brothers who, with us, are members of the community we call Church. It is an all-or-nothing relationship and pilgrim journey. Accepting Jesus and his Gospel is not like a trip through the supermarket, where we select whatever takes our fancy. We are invited into lasting relationship with Jesus and acceptance of his whole message, not just the bits that give us comfort. In today’s gospel-reading we hear him telling all who would be his disciples that the same rejection directed at him, the same baptism of fire to which he was subjected would be their lot, too.
We are inclined to look at martyrdom as violent death that was visited on Christians in the brutal persecutions conducted by Roman emperors like Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian and a host of others. We seem to be unaware of the fact that over the last 125 years more Christians have been murdered, exiled, unjustly imprisoned and tortured than in the previous nineteen centuries. That is surely because Jesus and his Gospel stand in eloquent opposition to injustice, deprivation of freedom and denial of human rights and self-determination. There have been leaders and governments in different parts of the world who have been threatened by Christian values and those who have championed those values. We know of some prominent Christians who have championed those values and have paid the price for doing so.
Names that come to mind are Oscar Romero, assassinated at the altar while he was celebrating Eucharist. Then there is the Vietnamese Cardinal, Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, who was arrested in 1975 and sent to a re-education camp for 13 years, 9 of which were in solitary confinement, simply because he dared to speak the truth and because he was the nephew of President Diem, the first president of South Vietnam. In more recent years we have heard of countless, un-named Christians across different African and Middle Eastern countries who were executed by anti-Christian factions like ISIS, Al Shabaab and Boko Haram. These are self-acclaimed religious groups who see Christians as threats to their existence.
Today’s first reading gives us an account of how Jeremiah was not afraid to speak the truth to the spineless and morally corrupt Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. Jeremiah’s crime was his persistence in reminding Zedekiah of his tactical errors and his prediction to the king that he and his people would end up in exile in Babylonia. Jeremiah’s persistence in speaking with integrity led to his being thrown into an empty water cistern to perish. He was eventually rescued through the intervention of an Ethiopian eunuch, who persuaded Zedekiah to relent and have the prophet pulled from the cistern to safety. Still, Jeremiah would not be silenced, and his endless complaint has found its way into our language in the word jeremiad.
In similar fashion, Jesus lived and spoke with complete integrity. Aware of the ordeal and rejection ahead of him, he refused to be silenced, pointing out that all who remained faithful to him would be penalised for living, speaking and teaching with integrity.
The relevance of today’s readings for us is that we, too, are sometimes called to speak the truth in the face of injustice, moral corruption and dishonesty, sometimes in high places. Living with integrity is to live in imitation of Jesus, Jeremiah and the host of Jesus’ followers to whom the writer of Hebrews refers. Integrity comes at a cost. It won’t let us fence-sit.