20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 17, 2025
A warning that the life of a Christian will not necessarily be peaceful or tranquil
Luke 12: 49–53
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.”
Preparation / Centering
If done in a group setting, the prompts are read aloud by the leader; otherwise a silent meditation.
Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025
Presence of God:
Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your sacred presence. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you.
[1-2 minutes of silence]
Freedom:
Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love.
[1-2 minutes of silence]
Consciousness:
Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life.
[2-3 minutes of silence]
Opening Prayer
Lord, you told anyone who would listen that you were distressed—or stressed—about the eventual outcome of your commission from the Father. Help me in my times of personal stress, over decisions that must be made, over divisions in my family or community, over possible pain and loss. Help me to be strong and courageous, as you were, but at the same time, understanding of those who do not share my convictions.
Companions for the Journey
From Living Space 2025, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
Commentary on Luke 12:49-53
We have some passionate and disturbing words from Jesus today.
First, he expresses his deep desire to cast fire on the earth. In the imagery of the Old Testament, fire is a symbol of God’s powerful presence. We remember Moses at the burning bush, the pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites by night as they wandered through the desert to the promised land, as well as the tongues of fire that hovered over the disciples at Pentecost.It is this Pentecostal fire that burns men’s hearts and draws them to change the direction of their lives. For Jesus’ wish to be fulfilled, we have to play our part in helping to spread some of that fire of God’s love everywhere.
Second, Jesus expresses a longing for his ‘baptism’ to be accomplished. Baptism here refers to his immersion in the terrible suffering and death by which we will be liberated. In fact, the ritual of baptism, where the person to be baptised was immersed in the baptismal pool, was seen as a parallel to Jesus’ going down into death and emerging to the new life of the resurrection. It is about this that Paul speaks.
Third, Jesus says he has come not to bring peace, but division on the earth. At first sight, this is a hard saying and it does not make any sense. Is Jesus not the Prince of Peace? Did Jesus not say at the Last Supper that he was giving his peace to his disciples, a peace that the world could not give and that no one could take away? Did he not say: Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)
Was not the final greeting of the Risen Christ to his disciples in the upper room: Peace be with you. (John 20:21)
Yes, but he also warned his disciples that, after he was gone, they could expect a rough ride. They would be hauled before rulers and governors; they would be beaten and jailed and put to death. People would think they were doing well in ridding the world of them. In that sense, Jesus was certainly not going to bring peace. And, by the time this Gospel was written, Jesus’ prophecy had been well borne out—and there was a lot more to come.
The break-up of families, father against mother, parents against children, in-laws against in-laws, was unfortunately only too common as one or more members in a family decided to follow Christ and be baptised. These must have been very painful experiences which no one wanted. Anyone who has studied the history of the Church, all the way back to its beginning and in many places throughout the world, knows how many families were torn apart by their accepting Christianity. In the Gospel, we see it in the story of the blind man who attached himself to Jesus and whose parents, terrified of the authorities, wanted to have nothing to do with it. It is surely an image which was quite familiar to converts in the early, not to mention the later, Church.
Jesus had warned that those who wanted to follow him had to be ready, if necessary, to leave home and family and enter into a new family of brothers and sisters. To follow the way of truth and love, of freedom and justice is always going to arouse the hostility of those who feel threatened by goodness.
But is it right to break up one’s family? We might counter by asking which is the more loving thing to do: to be true to one’s convictions and one’s integrity, or to compromise them for the sake of a merely external peace?
The one who leaves a family for the sake of Christ and the Gospel shows a greater love for one’s family and will never cease to love them, no matter how viciously they may react to the choice the Christian has felt it necessary to make. In the long run, truth and love will prevail—they must.
Finally, hostility, division and persecution, provided the Christian is not directly responsible, does not take away the peace that Jesus spoke about. On the contrary, it is only by being true to one’s convictions and one’s integrity, whatever the price that has to be paid, that peace can be experienced.
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
- At the end of this gospel reading we all respond “Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.” Do we feel like praising God at the end of this reading?
- What was my first reaction to Jesus saying that he has come to set the world on fire?
What could that possibly mean? - Does it bother me that Jesus says he has come not to bring peace, but division?
How does that statement square with “Love those who hate you” from chapter 6 of this gospel? - What does this passage have to say about peace at any price?
Am I someone who values peace, even when it comes with a price?
What price will I NOT pay for the sake of peace? - Do I feel like I am living in a Luke moment in our political and cultural divisions?
- Are there divisions in my family about some teachings of the Church, or the church leadership at any level?
- Are there divisions in my family over politics?
How do we handle dueling convictions at family gatherings? - Am I estranged from anyone in my family because of religious, political, career or lifestyle choices?
- Is there competition in my family or among my friends, colleague?
From First Impressions, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:
Enter today’s firebrand Jesus, who attacks such superficial security, who calls us to God’s peaceable dominion. Here a new set of values governs the community of believers, where the citizens do not purchase their worth and esteem before God, but are given them as gift.
Jesus will continue to preach and live the peace given only to those who love and strive to live in a community of concern for their sisters and brothers; who work to tear down walls of division created by a near-sighted world.
How comfortable is our American ethos of rugged individualism with this Jesus?
How comfortable am I with this Jesus? - Is the energy for goodness and the zeal for reform of our lives, apparent in the words of Jesus, evident in my church today?
Is this energy for goodness and zeal for reform of my life evident in me today? - Have I ever had to make difficult ethical or religious choices?
Did a specific ethical or religious choice I made cost me family or friends?
Was that cost hard to bear?
Did I see the hand of Jesus on my back, comforting and sustaining me?
Meditations
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:
From Dom Cingoranelli, a Benedictine Oblate:
Living in a Luke 12:53 moment? I use that term to refer broadly to our current cultural milieu. We live in a time when we find serious division, even within families, over many current issues. In the Gospel, Jesus refers to differences between those who follow Him, and those who do not. Of course, differences within families and other groups have existed since Jesus walked the earth. And now we live in a time characterized by extreme division on so many levels. This issues can be over religious differences, political differences, personal choices, and cultural divides. It doesn’t matter where you stand on any of the issues I’ve mentioned. Just consider yourselves blessed if your family remains unified, even with differences of opinion among the family members on these issues. More and more families, though, are finding fissures in the foundation of the family unit. If you are one of them, you already may have tried resolving differences, albeit with less than outstanding success. What to do, then? For one thing, monitor your own behaviors to avoid creating a wider crevasse. Be charitable in your responses, be open to discussion. And pray. In any event, never give up. With God all things are possible.
A Meditation in the Ignatian Style: Imagination:
I recall the famous story of Mary and Martha when Jesus visited them in their home. One sister sat at the feet of Jesus and welcomed him through her undivided attention. Another sister welcomed Jesus through her hospitality, which meant she missed a lot of what Jesus was saying. Now imagine that Jesus has gone, and the two of them face each other, having publicly displayed their different priorities and approaches. Play over in your mind that probably slightly acrimonious discussion about what each should have done or said. I put myself in Martha’s situation. Have I ever felt that a parent or sibling was not contributing his/her share? Then I put myself in Mary’s shoes. Was priority ever something that was not approved of by some friends or family? Which sister do I most identify with?
A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:
From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
Jesus can bring division among people--those with him and against him. He can also bring divisions inside each of us. Prayer is a time to sift with him the different desires and actions of our lives. In prayer we ask the grace to know him more, love him more, and serve him more faithfully in our lives.
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:
This gospel of Luke is often hailed as a gospel of mercy and love. Consider Chapter 6:27 passim:
Love your enemies’ do good to those who hurt you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly… If you love those who love you, what credit can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit can you expect? For even sinners do that much….. Be compassionate as your father is compassionate. Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Now consider today’s passage: 12:49 passim
I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! Do you suppose I am here to bring peace on 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; father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.
Does this passage of threats belie that description of this gospel as one of love and mercy? Why does Jesus often say “Peace be with you”? How do you reconcile the two points of view? Should we consider the situation of Luke’s audience of 75 CE as possibly different from the situation Jesus’s actual followers were in in 30 CE?
Closing Prayer
“A Story that will save us”
Tell us a story that will save us (and that will have been enough) all the great songs have been prayed save only one Tell us a story that will save us Go down Lord, & bring us home May our promises free us not chain us May what we desire fill us not entrap us May those persons we love finish us not bind us Go down Lord, & bring us home You are our history, Lord We neither begin nor end outside you May you be for us not weapon, not answer, but cause of peace May our questions show us not division but the smallness of human answers. Go down, Lord & bring us home May our words create Not destroy May our hands nurture Not break May our dreams lead and encourage us Not trap us in despair Go down, Lord & bring us home We are anxious about many things We are lost in many ways Go down, Lord & bring us home.
—Rev. Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.