Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XX per Annum C
17 August 2025

 Last Sunday, the Gospel passage gave us a clear call to be vigilant and prepared for the Lord’s return and for our coming judgment.  Last Sunday’s images of servants awaiting their master’s return from a wedding and a homeowner who does not know when a thief may strike, taught us that “at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come”.  And while our impending judgment usually carries with it some sense of threat and fear, I noted in last Sunday’s homily that we should temper that with real hope because of the generous love of God.  We have such hope because in the image of servants awaiting their master’s return, the Lord says he will have them sit at table and wait on them.

 If Catholic worship were marked by spectacle and theatrics, immediately upon this summary from last week, we might have a loud record scratch sound played over the speakers to alert you to a sudden change in focus.  For today’s Gospel passage gives us a rather different picture.  In fact, it gives us a picture of Jesus that doesn’t fit well with modern and progressive notions of a “feel good” religion, or a religion marked by love without demands.  Jesus announces that he has come to set the earth on fire.  He dismisses the notion that he has come to establish peace on the earth.  Instead, he says he has come to establish division.  Because of him and belief in him, the Lord goes on to describe divisions among family members and in households.  So much for the Prince of Peace and progressive notions of the brotherhood of man!  So much for humanism passing as authentic religion!  The image of setting the earth on fire goes hand in hand with the meaning here of the baptism of which the Lord speaks.  Baptism is about being immersed or drowned.  By referencing water and fire, the Gospel is using two images of destruction.  Both water and fire were two images of how God would recreate the world in the ancient Jewish idea of the end times.  God would destroy the world and then restore it by means of water and fire.  In fact, think of the story of the flood and you see the ancient mind about end times and destruction leading to renewal (in that case by means of water).  So, it was that a time of testing and destruction was expected by Jews, that would be marked by fire, before a time of restoration would be brought about by God.  Despite what I said last weekend that was meant to temper fear and threat, it seems this weekend that we should be more wary and concerned about what things will be like when the Lord comes as judge, what things will be like when the end times take place.

 The truth is, we have to hold together at one time BOTH a sense of hope and confidence in the generous love of God at our judgment AND a sense of reverent fear, a certain type of uneasiness about the end times and our coming judgment.  In other words, we have to occupy the space of some tension between two extremes.  We have to avoid the sin of presumption, meaning that we regard God’s commands and the punishment due for sin as of little concern, such that we presume we are among the saved.  At the same time, we have to avoid the sin of despair, meaning that we have little trust in God’s desire for our salvation and we think our cause is hopeless, such that we are paralyzed in fear before the idea of the end times and our coming judgment.  Both presumption and despair are sins.  We have to occupy space between them, managing to challenge ourselves to battle sin and grow in holiness while, at the same time, knowing that we cannot save ourselves, but rather entrust ourselves to a loving God who does everything to make our salvation possible.

With all this in mind, we can say the Gospel seeks to correct an overly optimistic expectation about eschatology (a word meaning belief about the end times).  Jesus tells his disciples that it will not be easy.  Truthfully, the only way we can make sense of these and other competing images in the Scriptures is to read them in a catholic way, meaning we do not cherry-pick one image or another; rather, we read the whole of the Scriptures and keep the entirety before our eyes.  Or, as I said a few moments ago, a catholic way of holding all this together, is that we have to occupy the space of some tension between two extremes.  Preaching only a frightening, hellfire and damnation gospel where almost no one is saved would not be accurate.  Likewise, preaching only a humanistic, undemanding gospel where everyone is saved, skipping along the yellow-brick road to heaven would not be accurate.  The Jewish idea of the end times, an idea that we maintain in the Christian faith, is that a period of testing and tribulation will take place before there is restoration, salvation, and the full arrival of God’s Kingdom of peace.  There is no salvation, no kingdom of peace without a time of trial and division first.  Just as there is no resurrection without the cross first.  No Easter Sunday without Good Friday first.  In fact, the Lord’s words about family division are a quote from the Book of the Prophet Micah (Micah 7:6) describing the very time of testing and trial before the coming day of God’s restoration of Israel.

If you are like me, perhaps you can admit times of discouragement in life.  We get worn down by the challenges of life and the battles, both internal and external.  We find ourselves listening to a message and false gospel that somehow all of this should just be easier.  I mean, if God is God and if we are His people, shouldn’t things be easier?  There might be that interior voice saying, “What is my penance on another Friday going to matter anyhow?  I think I’ll just go to Mahogany [steakhouse] instead.”  Do we need to do Lent again?  Gosh, it is so long.  Can’t it just be Easter all the time?  Nope.  That is not the truth.  It is not the message of the Scriptures.  It is not the message of the Lord.  There is work and struggle and battle to take place, even as we express confidence in God’s mercy, joy in ongoing conversion, and hope for when we meet the Judge.  If we find ourselves presuming God’s mercy and going light on the need to battle sin and to confess it, then we should course correct and take on more rigorous work for conversion.  If we find ourselves in despair and thinking God has us under a microscope, ready to strike us at any moment, then we should course correct and spend time in prayer considering God’s love and expressing hope.

The second reading captures this tension well in telling us to “persevere in running the race” and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who embodies this tension.  Listen again to how the inspired words from the Letter to the Hebrews describe the space the Lord occupies in this tension: “For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame…. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart”.