20th Sunday Ordinary Time

Readings: Jeremiah 38.4-6,8-10, Hebrews 12.1-4, Luke 12.49-53

Jeremiah tells the people not to fight but to surrender. He has a religious reason for doing this: he believes the people are defenseless because God had withdrawn his protection. He believes the people are responsible for what is happening because they have forgotten their promises to God. To forget their promises is to bury their identity as the people of God, to forget is to deny the past and the present its meaning.

Jeremiah is the supreme example of the prophet who is isolated because of hi fidelity to the word of God. He is in conflict with his own people, with himself, even with God. It’s all very well to say what you mean, but if what you mean is not what is wanted. What happens to you? What happens when the word that you speak and the values that you cherish cause division even within your own family? And Jesus warns in today’s Gospel that even families will be divided among themselves because of him.

The opposition that Jeremiah brought proceeded from his fidelity to his mission. The fire that Jesus brought proceeded from his fidelity to his mission. Neither of them introduced conflict as a way of passing the time. They both paid the price with their own lives. Jesus warn that his own disciples must face the real conflict that the Gospel will surely bring. Standing for something inevitably means standing against a lot of other things. And as Jesus suggests when the lines are drawn up there can be a lot of familiar faces on the opposition side.

Every community needs its prophets. The prophets today don’t get treated any better than in the past. They rarely appear as popular figures because their popularity ratings are rarely high. They are not appointed by the community, so the community cannot sack them when they don’t like what they hear. Often, they end up like Archbishop Romero- slaughtered by the power that fears them. In the end the death of the prophet is his last accusation and challenge. We must pick up where he left off.