Jesus: A cause of division

JESUS said to His Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple — amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

When Jesus finished giving these commands to His Twelve disciples, He went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns. REFLECTION NOT PEACE BUT THE SWORD. The Gospel contains some difficult sayings of Jesus. He claims to have come not to bring peace but a sword, because He will be setting members of the household against one another. He adds that one who loves family more than Him is not worthy of Him, that one who does not take up one’s cross and follow Him is not worthy of Him, and that one who seeks one’s own life will lose it.

What all this seems to mean is that Jesus’ message requires a radical response, so radical that it may, in the process, alienate the person from those whom he normally is in harmony with. There appears to be no middle ground; ultimately one must choose: Either for Jesus or for anyone else, loved ones included.

Many of us have verified Jesus’ words in our lives: How we have had to abandon family ties to follow what we believed Jesus required of us. Our hope, of course, is that in the end our loved ones will come to accept our choices as God’s. Jesus’ message can be very challenging and radical that we have to go through painful decision-making. In these moments, our consolation comes only from our conviction that we would rather obey God than human beings.