Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) – Luke 12: 49-53
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. – Ecclesiastes 3:1
You are undoubtedly familiar with the TV game show Family Feud. This popular show has been on the air almost continuously since 1976. In it, two families square off in an attempt to win the most money. They do this by trying to guess the most popular responses to the questions the host asks. The family member who comes up with the number one answer gives the family control of the round and a better chance to win. The family that wins the game then has a chance to win more money in the Fast Money round. The key to winning that round and the cash prize is to come up with as many number one answers as possible.
Imagine that your family is on Family Feud. The host reads the next question: “Name the most important value in human life!”
Ready to hit the buzzer?
What would be the number one answer? Peace? Love? Family? We could make a good case for any of these three, as well as several other possible responses. All of these are recognized as important by people of varying backgrounds, classes and religions. People may differ on some of the details, but few would differ on the importance of these values in general.
Now let’s ask ourselves this question: what would be the number one answer according to Jesus?
Think about that for a moment.
We could make a good case for any of the values already mentioned. Family? Honoring father and mother is one of the Ten Commandments. Peace? At the birth of Jesus, the angels sang out, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests”. Love? The first letter of Saint John tells us that God is love. Which one would Jesus pick?
Before looking at Jesus’ response, ask yourself this question: What would be your number one answer? Or, better: What, in fact, has been your number one answer, based on how you have made decisions and lived your life thus far? Remember, your number one answer is at the very center of your life. Everything else will serve it.
Would you choose peace? Peace is certainly a much-needed value in our contentious times. We need people who know how to make peace between relatives, neighbors, friends, political parties, and nations. If peace becomes your number one answer, however, the danger is that you will seek peace at any price. You will compromise other important values too much. And what you get in return may not be real peace at all.
Would you choose family? In a time when, on the one hand, many people are living on their own – cut off from family – and on the other hand, where many families are facing divorce, abandonment, abuses of various kinds, and serious divisions between family members, there is a great need to rediscover the importance and the gift that is family life. There is a great need to help families deal with these challenges and find ways to help and support family members. Still, if family becomes your number one answer, there is the danger that you will take on the strengths and the weaknesses of your own family’s values and not measure them against the values of the Gospel. Moreover, there is also the danger that one family member becomes too controlling in your life and demands that you conform to their wishes.
Would you choose love? In a world marked by so much anger and hate and loneliness and anxiety, it would seem that, like the old song said, “what the world needs now is love, sweet love”. The problem here is how you define love. If love is only the feeling of love – as wonderful as that can be at times – then the danger is that you will blow hot and cold, and have no perseverance or commitment to the people and things you have loved. As long as the feeling is there, you’re there. When you don’t feel like it, you’re not there. But is that love?
So, how does Jesus respond to our question?
To our shock, He seems to be saying, “None of the above!”
Peace? “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Family? “From now on, a household of five will be divided…”
Love? If our image of love is only the feelings of love, or the sense that we would never stir up any trouble at any time for any reason, it’s hard for us to square Jesus’ words with that image.
What is Jesus’ number one answer? He would say, “Follow me!” He Himself is our number one answer – or should be. Our second reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, affirms this: “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith”. Jesus reminds us that we cannot serve two (or more) masters. We will inevitably settle on one. Which one? Jesus, by His very presence in our lives, calls for us to make a decision to follow Him, to make Him our number one answer.
Such a decision will indeed bring us peace, but it will also lead to division. Why? Not everyone we know will truly say yes to Jesus. Even some who claim to, really don’t. Consider this example. How do family members (or other people in your life) react as they observe you drawing closer to the Lord Jesus and letting Him transform your life? If they welcome it, if they encourage you, if they become part of that “cloud of witnesses”, be assured that they, too, have made Jesus #1. If they feel threatened; if they try to undermine your commitment to the Lord; if they mock you or spread false rumors about you to others, you can be sure that they have not made Jesus #1. Then you, too, will experience the division that can come about by saying yes to the Prince of Peace.
Know, then, that Jesus faced this Himself. Recall the words of Simeon to Mary when she and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised: “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted, and a sword shall pierce your heart”. This “sword” arrived long before Calvary. Early in Jesus’ public ministry, He goes to Nazareth. The people, who were his neighbors and relatives, try to control Him and have Him place their wants and needs first. When He responds that His Father’s will is greater than this, they reject Him and want to kill Him. Some of Jesus’ own relatives appear later, claiming that He is “out of His mind”. Imagine what they would have posted about Him if social media existed then. Both Jesus and Mary experienced this division, this sword, because of their faithfulness to the will of the Father.
This is why, for the letter to the Hebrews, making Jesus our number one answer means this: “Let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith”. Think of a marathon, like the Boston Marathon. Two types of people enter marathons: those who seek to win the race, and those who are seeing if they have what it takes to simply run a whole marathon. They just want to complete the race. That is the kind of running that the Letter to the Hebrews has in mind. A perseverance that is strengthened by making Jesus Himself our number one answer.
And Jesus does not leave us alone to run our race. He gives us “a cloud of witnesses”. Saints, known and unknown, who have run a race very much like our own. Saints who are our patrons, who intercede for us, who encourage us to persevere, who cheer us on. It is this very perseverance, this decision to give all for Jesus, that is the essence of love. It is this focus on Jesus as our number one answer that leads us to ll=ook at ourselves to see what burdens and sins still cling to us, slowing us down and making it harder to run the race. Some of this dead weight is our sin; but some of it is excessive guilt, huge expectations, an overly controlling family member or friend, great worries or fears. The idea is to let go of anything that interferes with our primary calling: follow Jesus. We can persevere because of the joy that lies before us: the joy if loving the Lord and following Him even now, and the unspeakable joy that will be ours when we are fully one with Him forever.
Family is very important, but not our be-all and end-all. Peace is very important, but not peace at any price. Love is what we are about, but not merely the feeling of love, but a commitment to Jesus as our Lord that endures even in the face of division and scandal and ridicule. As long as Jesus is truly our number one answer, we can say confidently with Saint Paul, “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” and “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me”.