Family Divisions

To be honest, at first glance, I don’t really like today’s Gospel reading. I like family unity. 

At a meeting I once attended, the opening ice-breaker was  “Describe your perfect vacation.” People talked about seeing the  Louvre in Paris, climbing the Rocky Mountains, marching with the jazz bands in New Orleans . . . When the going-around-the-circle answer-the-question got to me, I drew a blank on location. I said,  “I don’t really care where I am. I’d like to be on a beach somewhere  with my husband and all five of my kids and their spouses and  grandkids and they are all getting along.” Maybe it was my facial expression. Maybe it was my dramatic pause. Everyone laughed. 

I was serious. 

I do like today’s reading from Hebrews: “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” and “persevere in running the race.” Isn’t it great? That fervor fires my soul! 

Guess what? That fervor is what Jesus is talking about in the  Gospel, too. In the first century, family mattered even more than it does now. To be disowned by your family meant a loss of honor and livelihood, even starvation and death. Jesus is being about as extreme as he can. He is telling us to fix our eyes on him foremost.  Kinship in Jesus’ family takes priority, even over one’s family of birth or marriage: Persevere; run the race with courage; rid ourselves of anything that pulls us away from the Lord of lords and the King of kings. 

Jesus is serious about commitment. He models the way. In the  Gospel of Luke, he is about to turn toward Jerusalem, that place of passion and death, a baptism of anguish into which he is about to be plunged. 

He probably didn’t like it much either. But he did it anyway.

Consider/Discuss 

• Jesus talks about setting “the earth on fire.” When his followers were filled  with the Holy Spirit, their fiery passion became one of the hallmarks of  the early church. Their fervor attracted others. Like the prophet Jeremiah  in the first reading, they gave all they had, even to the point of losing everything. They were willing to die for Jesus. When have you experienced  that fire of faith in yourself or others? 
• The Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus “the leader and perfecter of faith”  who endured the cross so that we would “not grow weary and lose heart.”  On this day, what can you and I do to offer to God that same commitment  that Jesus gave on our behalf? 

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord Jesus, you do not call us to a wimpy discipleship. You ask us to give our all. On this day in the middle of August, in the heat of  summer, we might be tempted to avoid anything that feels like fire.  But your fire purifies us. Your fire ignites us. Your fire inspires us.  Burn like a flame within us so that we pass your passionate love and  joy to others. You gave your all. Help us to do the same.