“Do you think I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Those are startling words from the man we call the Prince of Peace. We can almost see some who heard those words turn toward one another with puzzled looks on their faces. Did he say he came to disrupt family life by turning father against son, mother against daughter? I thought he was about love, unity, forgiveness, reconciliation. He is. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but real peace, not a peace that sugar coats reality, not peace at any price, not peace that does not save.
Most of us can attest to the fact that living the teachings of Christ and standing up for His truth can bring division. It has always been so.
Jeremiah in our first reading faithfully prophesied just as God asked him to do, calling the Israelites to account and to turn back to God. It resulted in him being thrown into a cistern stuck in mud. So it would be with the Apostles, most of whom were martyred for the faith after preaching Christ crucified and risen. They were counter the culture of their day. We too are called to counter to the culture of our day.
That is why we who seek to be authentic Christians need to take to heart our 2nd reading, which encourages Christians to persevere. “Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus the leader and perfecter of faith. Consider how he endured such opposition of sinners in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”
Jesus did not come with the intention to divide; division was already here, the division that separates man from God, the division that the Evil one encourages. In fact he anguished over those who rejected him, prayed for their conversion, and forgave them. But he is the way, the truth and the life, and he could not compromise that truth to be popular, to be accepted in the world, or to avoid his journey to Jerusalem and the cross. So he stood up for good over evil, right over wrong, love over hate, virtue over vice, giving over grasping, life over death. And so must for us if we are to be faithful. When we are faithful real peace can be ours.
We live in a culture where to stand up for what Christ teaches divides us. When we speak up for the dignity of all persons from conception to natural death, when we speak out for justice for the poor and marginalized, when we defend marriage and sexuality as God intended them to be, there is a hostile reaction from those in the secular culture who worship extreme individualism and proclaim there is no God, no truth, only me.
From my own experience I know how difficult it can be to keep Christ first in the midst of division. In the years I spent in professional life as a practicing lawyer I traveled in less than holy circles in the secular world. When I announced that I felt God’s call to become a Catholic and a priest, most encouraged and supported me. But some of my friends thought I was crazy. They could not accept the possibility of a life dedicated to Christ as meaningful, as worthwhile. Some thought the teachings of the Church to be outlandish or out of date. Some with whom I had previously been able to have wonderful discussions about anything of interest grew distant. Sadly some friendships are now gone. To deal with the reality of division we need a life of prayer and openness to God’s grace.
My five siblings and I were raised by our grandparents after our parents divorced. In her later years I became my grandmother’s caretaker. Baptized Catholic though non-practicing, when she died I sought to make arrangements for her funeral in the village where I grew up. However her son, my uncle and his wife refused to attend a funeral in the local Catholic Church. My dilemma was the belief that my grandmother deserved a Mass of Christian burial (I needed that consoling prayer as well) and the belief that the family should be together at this time of loss. Uncle against nephew. The result was a prayer service at the funeral home and a Mass for the repose of her soul was offered later. Division within families over being true to Christ is real and painful.
There was a woman who was an alcoholic. She was mean spirited and angry. Her cantankerous nature had driven away what few friends she had. Her grandchildren refused to visit her. In her last years at a nursing home, roommate after roommate asked to be moved. Nurses stayed clear of her as much as possible. Her only visitor was her daughter, who was also an alcoholic. However after a difficult personal struggle she was graced with the strength that comes through Alcoholics Anonymous.
Despite being the object of her mother’s physical and emotion abuse as a child, the daughter worked hard to establish some form of loving relationship. Through it all her mother as unbending, issuing orders, never offering words of kindness or gratitude. Nothing the daughter did was good enough. On the evening of her death, there alone at the bedside was the daughter who wanted nothing more than to be loved by a mother who could not love, who to the very last denied her child a mother’s greatest gift. But the daughter had given her mother her greatest gift, her own love and forgiveness. She was a disciple of Christ who kept her eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith. She did not abandon the struggle, and neither should we as tempting as it is.
I read about a young Christian in China who was forced to appear before a local Communist official who promised the boy a purse of silver if he renounced his faith. The boy replied, ‘a purse of silver is not enough’. ‘Very well, then’, said the official, ‘I will give you a purse of gold.’ “That is still not enough’, was the response. Annoyed the official said, ‘well what do you want then?’ The boy answered, ‘if you ask me to renounce the faith, you will have to give me enough to buy a new soul’. He would not compromise and he was martyred.
To faithfully follow Christ may result in some relationships shaken or lost. It may result in moments of discouragement and sorrow. But Christ and his Church will stand with us, and the Blessed Mother will watch over us. When we are faithful, it is not the sacrifice and division we will remember. It will be the peace we feel which the Prince of Peace promised to all who love and follow him to the Cross and beyond. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Christ. Then others may well say, ‘I want the peace you have. Lead me to Christ’.