August 14, 2022 (Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

by Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

“What hotel room do you give a 800 lb. gorilla?  …. Any room he wants!”  

King Zedekiah thought he could kick out an 800 lb. gorilla. In his case that gorilla was the Babylonian Empire, and Judah was its vassal state. The king was playing power politics; he was trying to get Egypt to rescue him. That is no more than exchanging one 800 lb. gorilla empire for another one. … Stupid! 

Zedekiah was dense so God sent Jeremiah to warn him. … Don’t play gorilla power politics! … He didn’t want to hear that message, so he threw Jeremiah into prison. …  

Now the Babylonians were at the gate laying siege to Jerusalem, and Zedekiah doesn’t listen. … Jeremiah kept preaching … from prison! The military complained, “[Jeremiah] weakens the hands of the warriors.” Defeatism is treasonous! … So they threw Jeremiah into a muddy cistern to die.  

His own people offered no sympathy, no support; only an immigrant, a black Ethiopian courtier, a Cushite, spoke up to rescue Jeremiah.  

Jeremiah’s preaching brought king and people to a moment of decision; they had choose! Would they heed God’s message?  

Individually, we all have a hard time hearing the truth, but factions in society have an even harder time! A group or party easily ignores since each member shores up the other’s deafness and intransigence. …  So God raises up prophetic voices in each age to speak the truth and shock us into a new way of seeing. Regretfully, we have a collective bad habit of wanting to ignore uncomfortable and inconvenient truth!  

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sounds the warning. “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, …”    

Jesus demands that we make a decision to follow the ways of peace. If not, our own actions will bring division and disaster: “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter” and so on. Is it any wonder that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. 

They did not choose the ways of peace but played a deadly game of power politics that resulted in 66 AD in the Jewish revolt. The Romans invade from Syria, laid a swath of destruction through the Galilee, eventually capturing Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and ended a way of Jewish life. The revolt pitted people against people. .  

Jesus’ message of radical love and forgiveness still sets out before us the ways peace. Sadly, most still choose division and discord.  

Jesus brings crisis, a time of decision. Jeremiah demanded that Zedekiah trust God, so Jesus asks us to trust him and the Jesus way. Jesus is not a nice guy nor just a wise teacher. The Word-made-flesh demands our hearts and souls.  

C. S. Lewis rightly wrote: Jesus is either a megalomaniac or who he says he is. Sometime or others, each of us has to make a decision: “Will I trust Jesus or not? Will I live the Jesus way or not?  

Jesus demands no more of us than he demanded of himself. “I have a baptism in which to be baptized, and how hard pressed I am until it is accomplished.” … He chose you! Will you choose him? … He gave himself to us totally in an act of pure love. He just doesn’t give his life for you; he pours his life into you from the table. Take, eat … Take drink.  

Many here go to a gym. The rule of the gym is simple, “no pain; no gain.”  The rule of Christianity is no different, “no cross; no crown.”  

That cross is not about pain, it’s not about persuading God. It is about self-giving love. Will you choose to live Jesus’ radical love for God and for others? … Love is easy to praise, but love’s cost can be exacting. In the letter to the Hebrews, Jesus endured the cross for the sake of joy. (Heb. 19:2) Do you see that loving you is Jesus’ joy? 

Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth,” a purifying fire of divine love.  

But have you ever noticed that the only fire Jesus actual brings in Luke’s writing is “tongues as of fire” that parted and came to rest on each one of them.” (Acts 2:3) Jesus cast the fire that is the Holy Spirit. The question is will you decide to catch love’s fire for the Lord? 

I was privileged to know an old Christian Brother, Brother Anselm Shanahan. He was a man on fire. He was seventy-years old going on twenty. He had the liveliest brain, the youngest heart yet he was the oldest member in the community. He was on fire for justice and passionate about teaching, yet he knew life’s hardship. He faced the 800 lb. gorilla of alcoholism. God brought him to a moment of crisis, and he heard God’s call. At 65, he said “yes” again to God and “yes” again to helping people. He embraced the cross, dried himself out, earned another master’s degree and went back to the teach. He chose the passion of living love. 

The Book of Proverbs says: “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” (Prov. 17:3) Embrace your struggles and conquer them with God’s love. As St. Paul explained, “… affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5).  

Each of us will have moments of crisis calling for making a new commitment. Yet for those who look, there is in each crisis a grace to be discovered. Throughout his Gospel, St. Luke offers a path for catching the Spirit’s fire:  

• Make time for quiet prayer. Only the attentive heart can feel the Spirit’s promptings.

• Keep your eye on Jesus present in scripture, sacrament, and service.

• Don’t be captured by possessions. Simplify your life and reaching out to help in service.

• And above all, choose to be compassionate and passionate about life, about each other, and the Lord.
  
  Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze.” May your hearts blaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit!