20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C); August 17, 2025

Jer 38:4-6,8-10.  Ps 40   Heb 12:1-4.  Lk 12:49-53

Deacon Jim McFadden

       In today’s first reading Jeremiah is in the middle of a national crisis, political power plays, and civic turmoil.  (I know, somethings just don’t change.)  Jeremiah has incurred the animosity of those in power because he had advocated that the people surrender to their enemy, the Chaldeans.  Why would he offer such an outlandish option?  The political authorities and their followers had given their allegiance to pagan powers rather than trusting in God and, as a result, were suffering the consequences  for their misplaced allegiance.  So, Jeremiah was advocating that they suffer the predictable outcomes  of their bad choices and begin the process of spiritual conversion and renewal.  The political leaders and military, however, didn’t want to listen to Jeremiah and they considered his prophesy as an act of treason punishable by death.  So, the princes seized Jeremiah and threw him into a cistern to die from starvation.  Jeremiah was compelled to speak in God’s name and the people didn’t like it.  He paid the price. 

         Why did the people not listen to Jeremiah?  Why did they prefer to believe in their political leaders with their misguided and corrupt policies instead?   Many years ago in his Slow Train Coming album Bob Dylan put it this way: “It may be the Devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”  We don’t like our Devils, our God-substitutes exposed and renounced.  We get anxious and fearful, protective, and angry.  We get very defensive so we seek comfort in our cultural/political tribes who reinforce what we want to hear and seek safety from those who appeal to our fears, anxieties, and insecurities.  Fear and resentment have a very seductive power.  It can feel easier to believe the worst about ourselves and our world.  But, this tension can feel unbearable so we rely upon someone to rescue us.  So, we hear from autocratic demagogues, “I alone can fix it.”  This fear and insecurity takes its toll, chipping away our self-esteem, rendering us timid, and eroding our sense of fellowship and solidarity; so, we gravitate toward the strong man or group.  This syndrome is what Jeremiah was renouncing.

         At the same time, Scripture challenges us “not be afraid” and “Put no trust in princess, in mere mortals powerless to save” (Ps 146:30).  Stay with that brothers and sisters: don’t put your trust in princes!  Instead, we are called to surrender our “whole heart, our whole soul, and whole strength” to the Lord (cf. Deut 6:4).  This is what Jesus is calling us to do in today’s Gospel.  To believe in Jesus—to accept that he is in every way ultimate, not our political allegiances, that he is the last word because he is the Word of God, that his Spirit is God’s Spirit, is to make him the center of our existence.  So, Jeremiah and Jesus are compelling us to make a decisive choice: the option of the Gospel and the Way of Jesus cannot be delayed. And, make this call loud and clear, Jesus alludes his presence will be like fire upon the earth.  He says, “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled”  (Lk 12: 49).  These words  aim to persuade us to abandon a lukewarm Christianity, marked by apathy, indifference, and closemindedness to the fire of God’s love; that love as St. Paul reminds us “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).  Because it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to love God and our neighbor.  It is the Holy Spirit whom we all have within us and that is Who we should trust, not princes.  You see, brothers and sisters, Jesus needs disciples to spread throughout the world this fire and, if we do, we will be recognized as his true disciples.  The fire of God’s love is what brings people together, heals their wounds, rectifies injustice, and promotes the common good.  The fire of the Gospel can overcome divisions that exists between people, socio/economic classes, and nations.  Bearing witness to the Gospel burns within.  It overcomes all forms of  individualism, extreme  nationalism, and particularism where my interests, whether personal or national, come first before the needs of others.  The dynamism of the Holy Spirit and charity is open to all and we are meant to be conduits of that divine power. 

         From this perspective, we can understand Jesus’ other statement mentioned in today’s passage, which, at first glance, can be disconcerting: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you but rather division” (v. 51).  Jesus came to “separate with fire.”  To separate what?  Good from evil, the just from the unjust, the Kingdom of God from the False Kingdom.  In this sense Jesus came to “divide,” to cause a healthy dissonance in his disciples lives, breaking the facile illusion of compromised Christianity where we think we can have it both ways:  Christian life while pursuing the goods of the world;  Catholicism with Christian nationalism; true religiosity with spiritual consumerism. 

If we are going follow Jesus as his disciples, we have to be willing to pay the price of living the Gospel—all of it, not just the ones that bolster our private agendas.  Being a Catholic Christian is a 24/7 endeavor, in which we live our faith in all concrete situations—familial, political, economic, and social—witnessing the Gospel with enthusiasm and zeal, which essentially comes down to love of God and love of neighbor.  As the hymn goes, “They will know that we are Christians by our love, by our love; they will know that we are Christians by our love.” Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you listen to prophetic voices like Jeremiah or do you prefer political leaders  even though their polices may be adverse to Gospel values?
2. The dynamism of the Holy Spirit  is open to all of us who have been baptized.  As such, we are meant to be conduits of that divine power.  Is that the case with you.
3. In what sense is Jesus bringing “division” into your life?
4.