20th Sunday of Year C 2016

May Christ the Perfecter of our faith, confirm with his special blessings your choice to be his disciple and may your relationship with him grow deeper from day to day until he ushers you into the much cherished intimacy with the Blessed Trinity. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Jeremiah 38,4-6. 8-10; Hebrew 12,1-4; Luke 12, 49-57: 20th Sunday of Year C 2016)

    The figure of Jesus is prominent in the liturgy of today. In the first reading, prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a pit full of mud. The reason for this was that he communicated the message he got from God to the people, who preferred to listen to false prophets. His life was saved through the efforts of Ebedmelek. He is the figure of Christ who was rejected by his own people and eventually condemned to death but rose from the dead through the power of God the Father and the unction of the Holy Spirit. 
      At the beginning of his ministry Jesus was baptised by John, the Baptist, at river Jordan. Here in Jordan, God the Father and the Holy Spirit gave audible and visible testimony of Jesus’ mission, at the time when his public ministry was to begin. In today’s gospel, Jesus declares: I have come to bring fire to the earth, how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive and how great is my distress till it is over. The great baptism Jesus is referring to is his passion at Calvary. It is in obedience to the Father’s will that Jesus plunges himself into suffering at Calvary, submerging himself, as in Jordan, in the purification required for sinful humanity. This time the baptism is not a simple manifestation of his mission; it is its achievement, its predestined consummation. When Christ rises out of the purifying bath of pain, the whole human race would be changed in his flesh. The Spirit descends, sent by Christ in the Pentecostal fire, upon the Church. The image of fire which Jesus mentioned he would bring into the world refers to the fire of his love, of the Holy Spirit that will be given as the fruit of his passion, death and resurrection, that is to say, the fruit of his baptism at Calvary. Now, men are given the means by which they may have fellowship with Christ in the baptism of Calvary and share in the divine sonship revealed at the Jordan. This privilege is what all Christians share on account of the providence of God.
    Also in today’s gospel reading Jesus affirms, a surprising statement. Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. In the face of Jesus, other statements like: I leave you peace, I give you my peace (John 14,17) and the paschal greeting, Peace to you (John 20, 19.26) his affirmation today seems to be in contrast to the spirit of his gospel and the mission of salvation for all. However, Jesus is not in contradiction with himself. He brings his peace. His peace penetrates into the inner chambers of the conscience and heart so that they will be liberated from the disorder of sin. Jesus’ peace restores the good relationship between God and man, which helps man to live according to the will of God. Jesus’ gift of peace to people is useful and effective in establishing good rapport and love among them. There is no doubt that Jesus coming brings about division among people. First of all, we notice such divisions in our lives, for the truth which Jesus preaches does not leave us in peace but in disquiet, disturbance and also provokes, so to say, battle within us, as one part of us, wishes to stay with Christ while the other resists and rebels. Paul experienced such interior division (Romans 7, 14-24). Jesus provokes division as he proposes that people should make fundamental choice in their lives, that is, his choice or rejection. The division arising from such choices often happens in the same family, an ambient of work, the cycle of friends and even in the large society. As Christians we are not to pretend that such divisions do not exist, nor think that we are dispensed from siding with Christ and the Church when the circumstances demand it. The division which Jesus brings about can be seen in another way. It can be compared to fire that separates metal from impurities. Jesus came to separate light from darkness, truth from falsehood, what is just from what is unjust and good from evil. Before Christ, we are not to remain indifferent, we need to make a choice: with him or against Him. Who chooses him will no longer accept ambiguity in his life, nor live in hypocrisy and incoherence. 
    The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews holds that we should not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. The author here wishes to say that Jesus is our guide and model in all things: in love and obedience to God the Father, which enabled him to do God’s will in all things. Jesus is also our model in the love towards neighbour on whose account he gave up his life as sacrifice to redeem us. The second reading still indicates some positive attitudes of Christ which the Christian is not to overlook but to use in order to succeed as Jesus did:  He still writes: … for the sake of joy which was still in the future, he (Jesus) endured the cross …And after enduring the cross, by following the way of passion God marked out for him, Jesus now sits at the Right of the throne of God

    The author of the letter to the Hebrews uses sports competition as the mental structure through which he delivered his message of exhortation to the Christians so that they can fix their mind on Christ. For success in athletic venture requires that one have a goal and this goal is kept uppermost in the athlete’s mind. The author insists that Jesus should be the goal continually before the eyes of the runner. Like the witnesses in the stands, Jesus would urge the runner to strain further and further. He would do this because he has already ran the race and won. He faithfully endured both the cross and opposition of others. Having been put to death, he is now seated triumphant in the place of honour in heaven next to God. He has run the race. He now enjoys the crown that is the reward for the success. As the runners began to tire, they can look to him.
    Looking up to him also means accepting his teaching, especially, as today’s liturgy helps us to pinpoint. As we have been incorporated to him in our baptism, let us follow him to be baptised anew in the baptism of passion by accepting difficulties in our lives and not running away from them, searching for miracles here and there. As we practice our prophetic role of preaching Christ through our lives, as Jeremiah did, we should not give up when persecution arises. Neither Jeremiah nor Jesus gave up in the face of persecution. Yet, both were delivered from their difficulties. Jeremiah drawn out of the pit and Jesus made to rise from the dead.. Let us also make the fundamental choice of our lives to be and remain the disciple of Jesus throughout our lives, our focus should be on Jesus who will never fail us but who cheers us up to join the innumerable members of the communion of saints, co disciples of Jesus, dead and living. Let us do it immediately and live in coherence to it. Therefore, let us renew the graces of good relationship with Christ, which was started at our baptism, by growing in intimacy with Christ (by living our normal daily life in a heroic way). This intimacy with Christ will eventually usher us into intimacy with the Blessed Trinity. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye