Thursday – 29th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke 12:49-53

The Long and Winding Road

Renewing Baptismal Vows, Jordan River

Ever made a decision that brought you nothing but grief and pain?  A decision that put you at odds with your family and friends, even though you knew it was the right one to make?  Choosing to enter/leave religious life or getting married or taking that job out of state?  It brought you only silence or anger from your family!  Tough decisions, ones that you labored over and, in the end, knew they were the correct path to make. 

Today’s Gospel is a tough one to read, much less understand.  We think back on all the times Jesus tells His disciples – Peace Be With You!  And yet today is the complete opposite!  I bring division and fire, pitting one family member against another! 

We have all been baptized into the family of God, into a community of love and fellowship.  But we live in a world that seems to value something completely different: selfishness, greed, envy, hatred, and the list goes on and on.  Is it any wonder then that we will meet resistance, push-back and outright division as we seek to practice our Christian faith.

Nobody said it would be easy; nobody said following Christ would be a walk in the park.  But we are reminded, especially in today’s first reading, the reward is eternal life.

So be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

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