{"id":8350,"date":"2022-08-14T11:35:55","date_gmt":"2022-08-14T15:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=8350"},"modified":"2022-08-14T11:35:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-14T15:35:55","slug":"20th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/20th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-3\/","title":{"rendered":"20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

20th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18 (4)
Hebrews 12:1-4
Luke 12:49-53
August 14, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah served as a prophet of the Lord.  How were the prophecies he delivered received?  Today we hear the princes say, \u201cJeremiah ought to be put to death.<\/em>\u201d  Why?  Did he say something wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say, \u201che is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city and all the people by speaking such things to them.<\/em>\u201d  What had he told them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah has delivered many prophecies from the Lord that were not popular.  In this case, he had just told them to surrender to Babylon as the Lord\u2019s Will.  Obviously, this would not have been inspiring to the soldiers.  Even the people are discouraged as they want Israel to be a great kingdom of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They think he \u201cis not interested in the welfare<\/em>\u201d of the people.  In telling them to surrender, they think that he wants their \u201cruin<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does not.  He is very much interested in their welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows that their success lies in doing the Lord\u2019s Will.  He seeks to deliver the message of what the Lord\u2019s will is so that they may do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can face the same struggle today.  When we try to guide people to know the Lord\u2019s will, it is often not well-received.  Why?  Because it is not what the people want for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as the princes sought to silence Jeremiah by throwing him into the cistern, people today want to silence us when we try to speak God\u2019s Truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are we to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are to \u201cpersevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus<\/u>.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devil wants to pull us away from Jesus.  The devil distracts us with earthly pleasures.  The devil points us to things that bring us immediate pleasure but they do not bring us lasting joy.  To have the lasting joy that we are created for, we need to keep \u201cour eyes fixed on Jesus.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not easy.  We would like it to be easy but \u201ceasy\u201d is often not what God calls us to.  Jesus himself tells us, \u201cI have come to set the earth on fire.<\/em>\u201d  It is not enough to say<\/em><\/strong> we have faith.  We are called to fully live<\/em><\/strong> the faith.  In Revelation 3:16, we read, \u201cSo, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were those who did not accept what Jesus said.  He did not fight with them but neither did He back down from them and become silent.  Jesus did not become silent to \u201ckeep the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus knew his message would bring division.  Division is not the goal.  The goal is to know Jesus and to have a deep relationship with him.  The problem comes when not everyone accepts the Lord\u2019s teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should we be silent to keep the peace?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to ask what \u201cpeace\u201d is.  We are talking about peace in two different ways.  There is earthly peace where everyone gets along.  There would be no wars or fighting.  We certainly desire this but real peace is more than just not fighting.  Externally, earthly peace looks good but what about on the inside?  Are we agreeing or are we biting our tongues?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leads to the second type of peace, the peace that Jesus offers when He says, \u201cPeace be with you.<\/em>\u201d  It is a peace that is found in our heart and soul when we accept what God teaches and strive to follow it.  It is a peace that transcends earthly quarrels and disagreements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which peace do you seek?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devil wants us to seek the earthly peace where it seems everyone is getting along.  The devil knows that this can keep us from knowing the true peace that Jesus offers.  We become complacent in our faith.  We might only be lukewarm at best.  God doesn\u2019t want us to be lukewarm<\/em>.  Jesus came to \u201cset the earth on fire.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus did not start fights with other people.  If they did not accept what He said, He moved on.  We are not to fight others but we are to remain committed to our faith.  Why is this important?  If we become silent to keep earthly peace, others may think that we don\u2019t really believe it ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not easy.  We face \u201copposition from sinners.<\/em>\u201d  Jesus faced opposition but \u201cfor the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus endured the Cross because He knew that it would open the joy of the eternal kingdom to us.  May we accept the sufferings before us to bring others as well as ourselves to eternal joy with God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God guides us in his Word we hear read at Mass.  We are strengthened in the Eucharist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll conclude by noting that if everyone accepts the peace of Christ and lives in accord with God\u2019s way, we will have both the peace of Christ and earthly peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year CJeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18 (4)Hebrews 12:1-4Luke 12:49-53August 14, 2022 Jeremiah served as a prophet of the Lord.  How were the prophecies he delivered received?  Today we hear the princes say, \u201cJeremiah ought to be put to death.\u201d  Why?  Did he say something wrong? They say, \u201che …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[625,1025],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-2aG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8351,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350\/revisions\/8351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}