Sunday, August 18, 2013

SETTING THE EARTH ON FIRE

My Reflections for this SUNDAY:  “The Contradiction of the Cross”
The Reading for this Sunday is from Luke 12:49-53. 


Jesus said: “I have come to set the earth on fire and how I wish it were already blazing!”  I am amazed at how our Lord uses metaphors and paradoxes to drive a lesson.  In some instances our Lord is said to be the Prince of Peace, but in today’s reading we saw how our Lord wished that the earth is set on fire.  He gave us the assurance that he did not come to bring peace on earth but of division.  Her we need to understand the PEACE promised to us by Christ.  It is a peace not of this world.  Remember that this world also promises peace.  Literature abounds with political and social a theory that promises peace.  This is the main reason why Liberation theology is a bankrupt theology because it promises a Kingdom of Peace here on earth.  The peace of Christ is something that is within us.  It is futuristic because it hopes for the coming of His Kingdom.  Not as we envisage it but according to what God has planned.  Humans as we are, and intelligent as we are, we often device our own plan and we have our own solutions.  But if these solutions are not in accordance with God’s will it will never provide a lasting solution.  This reflection brings us again to the CROSS, where Christ our Lord hanged.  It is a sign of contradiction for as long as this world exists; there will be those who will be reconciled with God through the Cross.  There will be those who will reach heaven by the narrow way.  But there will be also those who will never find the right way and will always put themselves in opposition to God.  This is the reason why for so many times the world has criticized Catholic Doctrine on life issues.  As our Popes and Bishops continue to defend our doctrine, the more the world criticises the church and sometimes we are put in a bad light in the mass media.  This is exactly what Christ is saying.  The world will never be converted, but if we wished we can be converted.  As Christians, we bear the light of Christ.  And while we await for the coming of His Kingdom and His Second Coming, we do our best to bear witness to this world by our good deeds and by our positive efforts to show to the world how the Kingdom of God will be in the future.  Let us bear the cross with all humility and let us never be ashamed of Christ and His Cross.  Amen. 

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