Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of
the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may
use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change
or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies
is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some
aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from
glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).
The Divider
It is very strange,
again I say, it is very strange that the person who holds all things together,
who unites all creation, who is the principle of love and unity for all is also
the principle of disunity among human beings. He divides human beings among
themselves so that they are in conflict with one another. This principle of
unity is also the principle of conflict and division.
That is very strange but that is what we have
heard this morning from our Gospel reading. Jesus explicitly says that he has
come not to bring peace but division. Again here are his words, "Do you think
that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two
and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son
against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her
mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law.”
Jesus illustrates this
division or conflict within the family: son against father, father against son,
mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against
daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. In other words Jesus
will be the cause or occasion of conflict within a family.
But Jesus is also the
principle of unity for all of creation. He disposes everything he created in
such a way that a well-orchestrated harmony exists in this creation. St. Paul
expressed this beautifully in his letter to the Colossians. He says, "In
him, that is, in Jesus, everything in heaven and on earth was created, things
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, principalities or
powers; all were created through him and for him. He is before all else that
is. In him everything continues in being" (1:16-17). In other words all
things hold together in Jesus. He is the principle of unity.
The scientist and
Jesuit priest Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin explained these words of St. Paul to mean
that Jesus is the actual physical bond of the universe. He said, he
"operates physically in order to regulate all things" (THE PHENOMENON OF MAN).
But it is only among
human beings that he causes or occasions division or conflict. And this begins
in the family, the basic unit of society.
The reason for this
division or conflict is because for Jesus the priority is not the family but
God's kingdom. When one's priority is not Jesus' kingdom but something else,
like family, business, fame or fortune, or anything else, he runs into conflict
with Jesus and with those who follow Jesus. And Jesus said that this happens in
the family.
Today we hear the
expressions "family first", "family time", "family
bonding". There is an effort to strengthen family ties in the midst of
work and recreation. For Jesus such expressions mean nothing. For him it is
always the kingdom of God first, middle and last.
Since the 1960s when
Fr. Patrick Peyton began his Family Rosary crusade the theme proposed to many
families was "The family that prays together, stays together".
Humanly speaking this is a worthy endeavor, to use the Rosary to maintain the
unity of the family. But for Jesus this family unity has no value if it exists
against the kingdom. The ideal is that the
family Rosary builds up the kingdom of Jesus and not just the
maintenance of family togetherness.
A son is called by God
to become a religious for the sake of the kingdom of God. The father objects.
Conflict arises between father and son. A daughter is called by God to marry a
poor, lay preacher of the Gospel. The mother objects because she does not want
her daughter to stay poor. Conflict arises between mother and daughter.
Situations like this can be multiplied. In all of them, Jesus is the determining
factor. Follow him or one's family. He divides family members. He is the great
divider.
The choice is ours. Is
it Jesus we follow or will we follow our family and friends. There are other
passages in the Gospel where Jesus is very explicit. In Luke 14 he says,
"If anyone comes to me without turning his back on his father and mother,
his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters, indeed his very self, he
cannot be my follower" (verse 26). This is the translation of the New
American Bible. The Authorized Version has the word "hate" for
"turning his back" because the original Greek word here is really
"hate". So the commentators
say that what Jesus really meant was "love less". "Hate" is
only a Jewish expression, a hyperbole, to make his meaning very clear. Then
they bring in the passage from Matthew where Jesus says, "Whoever loves
father or mother, son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me"
(10:37). Then these commentators say that what Jesus meant was that we love him
more than anyone else.
Anyone can give his
own interpretation. But the words of Jesus are very clear. The kingdom of God,
living God's life, inevitably produces conflict in our family and friends if
their priority is not Jesus. Jesus asks each one of us today: What is your
priority, living harmoniously with your family or living my life in God's
kingdom? I hope that we give him the right answer.
Let us bow our heads
in prayer. Father, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Amen.
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