Reflections on Luke 12:49-53

This Gospel passage is so difficult that it has taken more than a week's reflection to find some light. Sacred Scripture is the living word of God and can give us new insights each time we read the same passage. This one has always been troubling.... Why would Jesus be the cause of division among us? I think that many of his followers today feel the pain of that division, especially in their own families, just as Jesus predicted. How many grandparents and parents are saddened as they see their children and grandchildren build their lives on totally different principles than what they tried to pass on to them. Everything we learned as the Catholic way of life is questioned and many things we thought carved in stone are repudiated publicly by famous Catholics. It works the other way, also. If a child has a real encounter with Christ and wishes to lead a radical and witnessing Christian life it is sometimes their own parents who chide them as "becoming fanatic" and suggest that they compromise and become "normal". The Holy Father speaks often of an encounter with Christ. It is this deeper knowledge and prayerful contemplation of Jesus that changes lives. I suggest that this type of division be met with love and prayer. God's grace touches us as individuals and we grow in a particular way according to a very personal timetable. Here love is primary. Jesus rejected no one. His mother is mother to all the children he commended to her care and will bring will heal the divisions as she leads all to her Son.

Reflections on Luke 12:32-48

This is a particularly difficult Gospel for the ordinary person to mine for prayer material. In parishes they might choose the shorter form which is actually the most challenging…. Jesus tells a parable about a master punishing servants. The servant who deliberately disobeys the master is severely punished but the servant who disobeys a command that he didn’t understand or hadn’t heard is also punished though not severely. We never speak today of God punishing. I really agree that we choose to walk away from God, not that God abandons us in anger. So why does Jesus compare God with the strict master? While reflecting on life I have come to think that what was called the “punishment” of God is chiefly the consequences of our actions. That is why conversion is always a turning away from sin and a return to the loving Father. I remember a time when several of us were studying at university during the summer. We became hungry during the evening and someone went to the kitchen to get several quarts of milk. There was half a quart left and I made a mental note to return it to the refrigerator. Of course, I forgot and in the morning a half quart of milk had soured and was wasted. I might have left the milk out for spite, “why should I be the one to return it?” which would have involved a whole lot of other guilt issues. That was not the case. I simply forgot. Yet, in both cases the milk was spoiled. The consequences punish us if we are negligent, even when that is unintended. We see many innocent people suffer and cry out to God asking “why?”. Often it is a natural disaster, the consequences of forces built into creation, or the result of someone else’s actions, evil or negligent…. We know that all will one day be fair and clear and we look forward to that day.

Reflections on Luke 12:13-21

Many, many years ago when I was in my early teens I had the good fortune to travel to our ancestral home in Germany with my family.  As part of that trip there was an outing to a beautiful Bavarian lake.  I remember enjoying  the sight of snow-covered mountains that bathed their feet directly in the sparkling water.   For just a moment I felt an irrational sadness that I did not "own" the lake.   I dismissed it quickly as the silly thought it was.   The Gospel passage above brought back the memory as a flashback.  I think now how instinctive is our desire to "own" and to "control"  the good and beautiful things of this world.   Even very small children must be taught to share their toys.   The rich man in Jesus' parable show us how useless it really is to hoard and to grasp.  How does God intend us to use the goods of this world.   There is so much beauty and goodness everywhere and most of it is free.   White clouds against a blue sky cannot be surpassed by any painter or photographer.  All we need do is look up and praise the Creator who designed it for our pleasure.   The poorest person in the world "owns" those clouds.  

We hear often that "we cannot take it with us".  Another piece of wisdom of the saints is that we keep only what we give away.  When our possessions become means of helping others they become an eternal "possession" of ours.   I think praise and gratitude is another way of making things eternal.   Did you ever stop to enjoy the blue chicory blossoms at the roadside?   Sometimes they are intermingled with the yellow of wild dandelion.  What a sight!   There is also the delicate blossom of the Queen Anne's Lace.   Because it is just a weed, we often overlook it.  So it is with many of God's gifts  It is because we do not stop to appreciate and enjoy and therefore do not "own"  the treasure as God intended.  It is not that we should not accumulate riches, it is that we try to grasp and hold the WRONG riches.  There is an old song that tells us "the best things in life are free"... we only have to look for them and thank the loving God who sent them.