Luke 12:49-53
Raging Fires
by Rev.
Jerry J. Pokorsky
Reprinted with permission of "The Arlington Catholic
Herald"
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Luke writes to explain that
Christ came to save everyone.
Jesus
said to his disciples: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it
were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! 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."
Every
cohesive social unit must at least tacitly agree upon a common rule of life, a
code that has the force of law every bit as rigorous as the Ten Commandments.
Mothers used to threaten to “wash your mouth out with soap” for violations of
family norms. Today moms are no less firm as they indict young violators with
the ever-so-modern “That’s unacceptable.” It is easy to imagine gangsters
demanding honesty and fair dealing among themselves, if only to ensure the
success of their criminal enterprise (hence the cliché, “There’s honor among
thieves”). A word to the wise in this regard: Don’t steal from mobsters. That
would be, well, unacceptable.
But
a “cohesive social unit” that has come to terms with vice requires a radical and
painful overhaul that goes beyond the crime-busting tactics of Elliot Ness and
his Untouchables – or forced compliance with the detailed regulations of the
Federal Register. Breaking up cohesive criminal enterprises – and families that
have made peace with patterns of profound evil – by recalibrating one’s code of
behavior or “world view” is painful if not costly.
Christ
challenges His disciples with His own code that seems to have dire consequences:
“From now on a household …will be divided; a father …against his son, …a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” “whoever is not with me is against
me.” “If anyone does not hate …even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
“I come not to bring peace but a sword.”
It
is, however, incorrect to reduce the teachings of Christ to a mere “code of
behavior” or even some grandiose “world view” (in the early church, it was
simply and elegantly, “the Way”). The way of Christ is far more sublime. The
question of our confrontation with the teachings of Christ hangs on, ultimately:
“Who do you say that I am?” No wishy-washy answers are allowed. Jesus Christ
is the Son of God – period, absolutely, without question or waffling. Or He is
not. That is the one truth-choice that, like the flash of lightning, draws a
clear line. And the choice of which side each man is on is what establishes the
“division” of which He speaks.
There
can be none of the, “Let’s form a committee to discover common ground, and go
from there.” The demand of truth is the opposite of the relativism that Pope
Benedict famously proclaimed as the “tyranny” of the modern world. We hear it
in so many forms: “My God says this.” “But my truth is this.” “It doesn’t
matter what you believe, just so you do not hurt anybody.” “Jesus might have
been a nice guy who taught people to love their neighbor, but the Son of God?
C’mon. That’s just too much. You can’t be serious.) And besides, it would
change everything.)”
Christ
insists: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth?” Well, no,
“not as the world gives peace.” And relativism answers, “Can’t we all just get
along? At least through this family wedding, or family reunion or this election
cycle?” Translation: ”Religion is a private, personal affair. Can’t you just
keep your beliefs out of sight? Who Jesus was has nothing to do with
anything.” Like gangsters who have made peace with a life of crime – or like
the Jews who made peace with the Cesarene demons – we too have made peace with
the Prince of the World with his ever-increasing evil demands.
But
what of all other controversies? Don’t they tear families and organizations and
nations apart too? How many families are ripped apart as they grab to claim
their fair share of the estate of a deceased parent? How many political
coalitions, woven together with compromises over divergent interests and
demands, endure beyond a year or a decade or a generation? How many mob bosses
in their greed end up betrayed by their own (so much for “honor among
thieves”)? There can be no lasting compromise with evil because it is the very
nature of evil to divide and destroy like a raging fire.
The
fire of the truth of Christ rages with a different kind of urgency. Christ
describes the fire that He wished was already blazing. But what kind of fire?
Not a fire of human consumption and destruction, but a fire of illumination and
virtue. His resurrection would be revealed to be the lightning bolt that
illuminated once and for all the truth of who He is. And once a man,
enlightened by this fire, gives the (correct) answer to “who do you say that I
am?” then the other aspects of the fire can affect him: purification, divine
love, the “firing up” of passion for fully living a Christian life.
An
important footnote: in Christian history, a few overly triumphalist types who
mistake their mission to spread the faith as (among other misinterpretations)
opportunities to provoke “righteous” division, even to the point of persecution
of nonbelievers. The divisions of which Jesus spoke were predictions, not
commandments. He wasn’t asking His followers to go about deliberately stirring
up controversy merely for the sake of provoking division.
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