In this context, this
Sunday’s Mass Readings can be unsettling.
Jesus says he has “not come to bring peace but division.” Come again?
Lord, with due respect, isn’t one of your messianic titles “Prince of
Peace?” Then again, the Lord speaks of
causing division and struggle within families—strife in the family unit
caused by Jesus! How can this be? Doesn’t Jesus believe in “family values”?
1. Our First Reading is Jer 38:4-6, 8-10:
In those days, the
princes said to the king:
“Jeremiah ought to be put
to death;
he is demoralizing the
soldiers who are left in this city,
and all the people, by
speaking such things to them;
he is not interested in
the welfare of our people,
but in their ruin.”
King Zedekiah answered:
“He is in your power”;
for the king could do
nothing with them.
And so they took Jeremiah
and threw him into the
cistern of Prince Malchiah,
which was in the quarters
of the guard,
letting him down with
ropes.
There was no water in the
cistern, only mud,
and Jeremiah sank into
the mud.
Ebed-melech, a court
official,
went there from the
palace and said to him:
“My lord king,
these men have been at
fault
in all they have done to
the prophet Jeremiah,
casting him into the
cistern.
He will die of famine on
the spot,
for there is no more food
in the city.”
Then the king ordered
Ebed-melech the Cushite
to take three men along
with him,
and draw the prophet
Jeremiah out of the cistern before
he should die.
The Book of Jeremiah is
longest book of the prophets in the traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text. Nonetheless, the book is clearly second to
Isaiah in its theological and liturgical influence. There are a number of thematic, literary, and
theological similarities between Isaiah and Jeremiah, but a notable difference
is that in Jeremiah, the person and biography of the prophet himself takes on a
much more prominent role. Indeed,
tradition remembered Jeremiah as the quintessential suffering prophet, and more
than one scholar has proposed that the “Suffering Servant” of the second half
of Isaiah was modeled on Jeremiah. Thus
it is unsurprising that Jeremiah is the first of the literary prophets that
Jesus’ contemporaries compared to him:
“Who do men say that the
Son of man is?” And they said, “Some say
John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets” (Mt 16:13-14).
The oracles and incidents
of the Book of Jeremiah are not evenly distributed throughout the reigns of the
kings under whom he ministered, but are clustered around dates of crisis: (1)
609 BC, the year of Josiah’s death, Jehoahaz/Shallum’s deposition, and
Jehoiakim’s first regnal year (22:11-23; 26:1-24); (2) 605 BC, the fourth year
of Jehoiakim, the year of the Battle of Carchemish [in which Babylon defeated
Egypt for control of the Near East], the imposition of Babylonian suzerainty
upon Judah, and the initial, small exile of upper-class hostages to Babylon
(25:1-38; 36:1-32; 45:1-5; 46:1-28), (3) 597 BC, the year Jehoiachin (a.k.a.
Jeconiah) surrendered Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, the second
and largest wave of exiles went to Babylon, and the accession of Zedekiah
(24:1-10; 27:1–29:32) and (4) 587 BC, the year of the destruction of the Temple
and Jerusalem, the end of Davidic rule, and the third and last wave of exiles
to Babylon. All the words and deeds of Jer 21:1-10; 32:1–34:22; 37:1–44:30; and
52:1-30 occur within a year or two before or after this date. This includes our present First Reading.
Our First Reading is an
excerpt from what is often called the “Passion of Jeremiah,” that is,
Jeremiah 37–45, which forms a distinct unit containing the historical
narrative of Jeremiah’s experience during the last years of Jerusalem, with ch.
45 forming a kind of epilogue.
While Nebuchadnezzar’s
final siege of Jerusalem was underway in the last years of Zedekiah, the king
implored Jeremiah’s intercessions with the LORD, but the prophet informed the
royal court clearly that the Babylonian armies would prevail, and destruction
and exile were inevitable (37:1-10).
During a break in the
siege, Jeremiah attempted to go to Anathoth to visit his ancestral property,
but was accused of desertion to the enemy, and imprisoned in “the court of the
guard” (37:11-21). The princes of Judah
were not satisfied with this punishment, as Jeremiah’s continued preaching of
Judean defeat was demoralizing the populace, so they had him thrown into a
cistern to die. An Ethiopian royal
servant, Ebed-melech the eunuch, succeeded in gaining the king’s permission to
rescue the prophet from slow death in the cistern, and place him back in
custody in the court of the guard (38:7-13).
The King arranged to meet privately with Jeremiah to inquire about the
LORD’s word concerning his fate at the hand of the Babylonians, but though
warned, the king did not heed or act on the warnings from the prophet
(38:14-28). In the remaining chapters of
“Jeremiah’s Passion,” the inevitable takes place: Babylon conquers and destroys
Jerusalem, and Jeremiah ends up being taken to Egypt by force with a surviving
remnant of Jews.
One of Jeremiah’s other
major contribution to salvation history and Christian theology is his own
person as a type of Christ, more so than any other prophet. Biography plays little role in Isaiah, but a
large role in Jeremiah. In many ways,
the person of Jeremiah the prophet becomes absorbed into his prophetic
ministry, such that his own experiences as much as his words become transformed
into “prophesy.” The Church has long
recognized the striking correlation between the character and travails of
Jeremiah and Jesus, beginning already in the lifetime of the Lord (cf. Matt.
16:14). The similarities abound:
(1) chosen from the womb
(Jer 1:5; Lk 1:31);
(2) destined for rejection
and conflict with their people (Jer 1:18-19; Lk 2:34-35),
(3) called to celibacy
(Jer 16:1-4; Mt 19:10-12),
(4) likened to a
sacrificial lamb (Jer 11:19; Jn 1:29,36),
(5) betrayed by his
own family (Jer 12:6; Jn 13:18,38 etc.):
Jer. 12:6 For even your
brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with
you; they are in full cry after you; believe them not, though they speak fair
words to you.”
(6) found preaching
against the Temple and predicting its destruction (Jer 26:2-6; Mk 11:15-19,
13:1-2)
(7) opposed and
persecuted by the chief priests for doing so (Jer 20:1-3; 26:7-9; Mk 11:18)
(8) condemned to death
for doing so (Jer 26:8-9; Mk 14:57-58)
(9) tried by a
vacillating, partly sympathetic, yet weak-willed civil magistrate (Zedekiah is
a type of Pontius Pilate; Jer 37:16-38:28; Jn 18:28–19:16)
(10) cast into a pit
and raised up from it again (Jer 37:6-13; cf. Jn 19:40–20:18).
Thus, in many ways, both
Jeremiah and Jesus fit the profile of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant of the LORD,
though ultimately Jeremiah is not the royal figure the Servant is. Nonetheless,
the Church’s memory and liturgy holds up Jeremiah as a proto-type of the
suffering prophet fully realized in Jesus of Nazareth.
2. Our Responsorial Psalm
is Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18:
R. (14b) Lord, come to my
aid!
I have waited, waited for
the LORD,
and he stooped toward me.
R. Lord, come to my aid!
The LORD heard my cry.
He drew me out of the pit
of destruction,
out of the mud of the
swamp;
he set my feet upon a crag;
he made firm my steps.
R. Lord, come to my aid!
And he put a new song
into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
Many shall look on in awe
and trust in the LORD.
R. Lord, come to my aid!
Though I am afflicted and
poor,
yet the LORD thinks of
me.
You are my help and my
deliverer;
O my God, hold not back!
R. Lord, come to my aid!
Psalm 40, together with
Psalm 41, end Book I of the Psalms on a note of lament, with David in distress
and seeking the LORD’s assistance. This
is typical of Book I of the Psalter, in which David is usually in distress and
beset by his enemies. Psalm 40 is a todah
psalm that makes explicit reference to some aspects of the todah (thanksgiving
sacrifice) ritual in the sanctuary, such as giving public praise before the
assembled worshipers (v.10). However,
Psalm 40 is unusual in that it reverses the typical progression of a todah
psalm. Most todah psalms begin
with a lament, or at least the recollection of a time of lament, and then move
toward praise and thanks. Psalm 40
beings with thanks and praise for God’s deliverance, but takes a “left turn” at
verse 11, as a new threat to the peace and health of David seems to have
arisen.
In this liturgy, we are
struck by the similarities of David’s experience with that of Jeremiah:
The LORD heard my cry.
He drew me out of the pit
of destruction,
out of the mud of the
swamp;
he set my feet upon a
crag;
he made firm my steps.
The remembrance of God’s
faithfulness to us (and to Jeremiah, and to David) gives us confidence to cry
out to God for help against the obstacles that still confront us:
Though I am afflicted and
poor,
yet the LORD thinks of
me.
You are my help and my
deliverer;
O my God, hold not back!
3. Our Second Reading is Hebrews 12:1-4:
Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of
every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running
the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes
fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter
of faith.
For the sake of the joy
that lay before him
he endured the cross,
despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at
the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured
such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not
grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against
sin
you have not yet resisted
to the point of shedding blood.
Our Second Reading is a
providential fit for the themes of the First and the Gospel. The author of Hebrews recalls Christ’s
“descent” into the suffering of the cross, and his “ascent” out of that pit of
suffering to the right hand of God. In
his embrace of and triumph over suffering, Jesus continued the great tradition
of the Hebrew prophets like Jeremiah, only in a more perfect manner. We recall Jesus words from the Beatitudes:
Matt. 5:11
“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter
all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is
great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The phrase “the prophets who
were before you” implies that we, in some sense, have entered into the
prophetic tradition; and this is indeed the case (see CCC §783). Let’s not have a “woe is me!” attitude when
we face opposition—even within the Church!—for attempting to be faithful to
Christ and the successors of his apostles.
If we are alive to be reading this, we have not yet resisted “to the
point of shedding blood.”
4. Our Gospel is 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.”
In this Gospel, Jesus
reminds us that there is a commitment higher than family bonds: the commitment
to God Himself.
Sometimes the commitment
to God and family are mutually supporting.
The Fourth Commandment is “Honor your father and your mother.” The son who repents of his selfishness and
turns to God will be instructed by the Ten Commandments to show honor to his
parents, and will then become a better son.
Likewise, St. Paul commands husbands: “Love your wives as Christ loved
the Church.” And to fathers: “Do not
provoke your children to anger.” So the
married man and father who repents and turns to God will be instructed by these
verses and become a better husband and parent.
However, there are also
occasions where commitment to God, and specifically Jesus Christ, is in
conflict with expectations that family members have for us, and then the
resulting conflict is very difficult to bear.
However, the truth of the faith and the call of God on one’s life are
not things that can be negotiated in order to avoid family friction:
He who loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me… (Matt 10:37)
The eminent American
rabbi and scholar Jacob Neusner points out that in making claims like this,
Jesus was essentially claiming divinity, because within Judaism family ties
could only morally be repudiated for the sake of God or His law. In this, Neusner supports the major argument
Brant Pitre makes in The Case for Jesus (Image Books), namely, that Jesus claims to be divine in all four Gospels, but one
needs a thorough understanding of Jewish culture to recognize this fact.
There are about six
million converts to Catholicism in the United States, and many of them had to
face the reality of Matt 10:37 and Luke 12:52-53 at some point in their
spiritual journey, when it dawned on them what the reaction to their conversion
would be among their non-Catholic family members. Others walked the road toward the Catholic
Church and stopped before “swimming the Tiber” because they were not willing to
provoke conflict with a family that was staunchly Protestant. Yet conversion to the Christ in His Church in
the American context is hardly to be compared with the sufferings of those few
who have made the journey from Islam.
One man tells his story HERE. The
division within families over Christ is not just some past phenomena. It’s a reality daily with us now.
Conflict within families
arises not only because one member desires to follow Christ or enter his
Church. Other forms of obedience cause
conflict: not a few young men and women have entered the priesthood or religious
life despite the opposition of their parents.
Despite growing up in the same household, different children often
embrace (or reject!) the faith to varying degrees, leading to aggravation at
family reunions between a sister who lives all the Church’s teachings and her
brothers who selectively reject the more “politically incorrect” ones.
All these forms of
conflict need to be borne in union with Christ, who suffered the cross for
us. Ultimately, the Family of God trumps
the natural family:
“My mother and my
brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21)
In hindsight, we realize
that salvation history is full of familial conflict that has its origins in
differing relationships to God. Cain
envied Abel’s intimacy with God, and slew him.
Jacob wanted the promises of the covenant whereas Esau despised
them. Joseph’s brothers sought to kill
him out of offense at his prophetic dreams.
Moses’ own brother and sister tried to remove him from leadership over
Israel out of envy of his prophetic status.
And many other examples could be cited, including Jeremiah as discussed
above (Jer 12:6).
This Sunday’s Gospel
reminds us that, as good as peace is, Jesus’ primary mission was not to
establish social peace in this world and in this life. If that had been his mission—and many think
it was!—he obviously has failed.
Instead, Jesus’ mission was to reveal, to those who desire it, the
“narrow way” that leads to salvation (Matt 7:13-14), the Way that is Himself
(John 14:6). There is a price too high
to pay for peace. And that price is
infidelity to Christ. So while it is
good and proper to work for legislation and social support for marriage and the
family, and to love our family members and build “cheerful Christian homes,” as
St. Josemaría described it; nonetheless, we also need to be prepared to endure
the strife and conflict that may ensue when we follow the path of truth to its
destination, which is a Person.
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