Aug 19, 2007 Sunday: 20th Sunday Ordinary (C)
Psalm:Psalm 40:2-4, 18
Second Reading:Hebrews 12:1-4
Gospel:Luke 12:49-53
It's not easy being a sign of contradiction in this world. And that's who we are as Catholics, a sign of contradiction, contradicting the ways of the world. Many times we can blend in with the rest of the world, but some times we stick out like a sore thumb. And our presence can make others uneasy.
One Friday weekend evening, few seminarians and a priest got together to have dinner. On the way back, we stopped at a Shell station. As one seminarian was putting gas in the car, the priest (who was in his clerical) went inside to buy a gum. The line was long, and a couple of person ahead of him was two high school or college aged young ladies. They were dressed up for going out Friday night; and when I mean dressed up, they had strapless shirts and way short skirts. And then they noticed the presence of the priest behind the line. And boy their conscience must have been pricked because they were trying to lower their skirts realizing that what they were wearing were immodest.
Sometimes when we speak our Catholic convictions in public, we can be accused of creating division. The world does not like to hear what Our Lord has to say through the Catholic Church. In 1994 Mother Teresa was invited to address the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington DC. About 3,000 were present; most of these were Who's Who of politics in DC. The President, the First Lady, and the Vice President were sitting next to the podium from which she spoke. People were letting their plates full of scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon go cold because they were so captivated by Mother Teresa. At the beginning there were lots of applauses. She spoke of God, of love, and of families, and she mesmerized everyone present. Then she dropped this following line: "I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because Jesus said, 'If you receive a little child, you receive me.' So every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus, the neglect of receiving Jesus." There was no applause, only several seconds of cool, deafening silence. Then began few applauses in several tables. No one on the head table was applauding. With few more lines of speech, Mother Teresa dropped an even bigger bomb. She said, "I know that couples have to plan their family, and for that there is natural planning. The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception. In destroying the power of giving life or loving through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self, and so it destroys the gift of love in him and her...Once that loving is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily. That's why I never give a child to a family that has used contraception, because if the mother has destroyed the power of loving, how will she love my child?" Then began a real long silence. One senator turned to his wife and asked her if his jaw was still up. Did Mother Teresa know that we don't talk about birth control in speeches in America? What she said divided not only the protestants from Catholics but Catholics from Catholics.
If we asked Mother Teresa why she could not go along with the rest of the world, to leave behind outdated dogmas of the past, she would answer us in the following way. She would say that she burns with fire of love for the Lord, and the one she loves and the one she serves has asked her to tell the world about how it pains for Our Lord to see precious gift of life killed through abortion and how it pains Our Lord to see husbands and wives reject His gift of life through contraception. And Mother Teresa knows that there are consequences in telling the world to turn away from such sin. It's a heavy cross to be a messenger for Our Lord because the World is too happy to shoot the messenger. That's what also happened to Jeremiah when he told the King of Judah and its people that the Lord was going to hand over Judah over to Babylon to be destroyed unless they turn back to the Lord. They didn't like the message, so they threw the messenger in a hole in the ground to starve to death.
Our Lord says today, "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided...a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father." When you are on fire for the Lord, it literally divides households. It divides Catholics from Catholics, Catholics from Protestants, and Catholics from the World. There are probably converts from different denomination here among us. Did you know that they had to carry heavy crosses to become a Catholic? Some of them are the only Catholic member of a predominantly Protestant family.
Our temptation is to blend in with the world, absorbing what the world teaches and stand against Our Lord. The first few weeks, I have struggled about whether to wear my clerical collar inside Walmart. It was easier and less self-conscious if I just take this tab out and put it in my pocket. Then, no one will look at me funny or ask me some serious religious questions while I'm shopping. I can just blend in with the rest. But, Lord has convicted me of giving into that temptation. If I burned with the fire of love for the Lord, I would risk being stared at, risk being challenged about Church teachings, and inconvenienced everywhere I go, for it matters little what the world thinks of me but matters what Our Lord thinks of me.
St. Paul has great encouragement for us today. "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. Consider how Jesus endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not resisted to the point of shedding blood."
