The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
Fr. Matthew Siegman
Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10 + Hebrews 12:1-4 + Luke 12:49-53
In today’s readings, the scriptures present us with a stark reminder: there is a cost to discipleship, and it is high. Jeremiah was prophet in Jerusalem as the Babylonians were conquering the Kingdom of Judah, and he witnessed the population being taken into exile. Our reading this Sunday takes place before the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah pleads, in vain, to King Zedekiah to surrender the city and place their trust in God. As we see in the reading, his message is not well received. He is imprisoned in an empty cistern and left to die. Jeremiah, however, has placed his trust in God. Unlike the King and the people of Jerusalem, he does the will of God, despite what it might cost him. We see that he is rescued through the intercession of Ebed-Melech, who recognizes that Jeremiah is a true prophet of God. Perhaps Jeremiah even prayed the same psalm that we pray this Sunday, which prays “Lord, come to my aid!” and praises God saying, “The Lord heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp.”
In the Gospel, we are again confronted with the cost of discipleship. Jesus laments that he has come “to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Interestingly, the God tells the prophet Jeremiah that “I make my words a fire in your mouth,” (Jer. 5:14) and when Jeremiah has a moment of crisis and desires to no longer be a prophet he speaks of God’s word saying, “it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding back, I cannot!” (Jer. 20:9) This, perhaps, is the fire of which Jesus speaks. He is, after all, the Word of God. He desires to live in the hearts of every single one of us so that we might love God so completely and fully that we can say our hearts are on fire, burning with love for God. But Jesus reminds us that this mission is not yet accomplished: “How I wish it were already blazing!” He says to us. Allowing the Word to live in us will cause division with those who refuse to accept the Word. Even families will be torn apart.
When Jesus tells his disciples that fathers and sons, daughters and mothers, and all other sorts of family relationships will be divided, many of us are taken aback. Even in–or perhaps because of–our culture in which there are so many broken families, we recognize this as a terrible thing. Families should not be broken up. The Jewish people to whom Jesus is preaching would have reacted even more strongly against breaking up families. The only reason a person could forsake their family in Jesus’s time was if they were offering themselves entirely to God. By saying that his followers must suffer be willing to suffer division in their families, Jesus is saying that following him is of the same importance as following God, because service to God is the only thing more important than family.
With such great costs, it is easy to say that the costs are too high to follow Jesus. Many in our society have done exactly this. They might object to the challenge of living up to the Church’s moral teachings, they might fear the reaction of their parents, siblings, grandparents, or friends if they turn to the Catholic faith, some might fear what upholding
Church teaching publicly might do to their public image, but there is one more thing we must consider: the rewards of discipleship. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that not only are we not alone on this road of discipleship, but there are many who have gone before us. “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) that we should look to them for inspiration and assistance in following Christ. We must keep our “eyes fixed on Jesus,” who, “for the sake of the joy that lay before him” endured all the suffering and shame of the Cross but is now seated “at the right of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2) We are called to share in this glory, and the path to joining Jesus in this glory is the path of discipleship. It is the path which will have a cost we do not know, which will lead us to places we do not expect, and which will result in both sufferings and joys we never imagined. But, ultimately, it is the path to eternal life.
The cost of discipleship is high, but the reward of discipleship–eternal joy with God in Heaven–is worth any suffering we might endure on this earth.