The Anguish of the Lord. The Lord Uses this Term on a Day Other than His Passion! Why? (TA)

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The Anguish of the Lord. The Lord Uses this Term on a Day Other than His Passion! Why?

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

Jesus said to his disciples, I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing. There is a baptism with which I must be baptized. How great is my anguish until it is accomplished. Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, a household of five will be divided.

Three against two, and two against three. A father will be divided against his son, and a son against his father. A mother against her daughter, and a daughter against her mother. A mother in law against her daughter in law, and a daughter in law against her mother in law.

The Gospel of the Lord.

 

Homily

Hearing those words of Jesus, it can be tempting to think, Lord, we really don’t need any help in being divided from one another. We’re actually pretty good at that. And that begs the question, then, what are we to make of this puzzling series of statements on the part of the Lord? This statement that if you think I’ve come to establish peace on earth, you’re wrong.

And when the Lord speaks that way, He is not saying that peace is a bad thing or even a, not a desirable thing. Rather, what He wants to put on the table is that we, what we understand by peace is often the wrong thing. Is often a less than fully desirable thing. The great Pax Romana, which fell over the world when the Lord was born in Bethlehem, was a peace imposed by force of arms and threats of violence.

Different Types of Peace

Yes, the world was at peace because Rome was capable of exterminating and eliminating those who threatened the peace. Peace like that is a frightened peace. And if we think about just even our experience of our families and our relationships, aren’t there times where we know that something is very wrong, and yet we find ourselves strangely unfree to talk about it, to address it, to engage it, because we’re worried about the reaction that’s going to come.

On the one hand, there is peace in the household. On the other hand, there is a tremendous lack of freedom in the heart. And so the Lord is saying, I have not come to impose that kind of a peace, where man and woman are always cringing and looking over their shoulder, frightened by the threatening consequence of what might happen if I get it wrong, do it wrong, or say it wrongly.

And speaking back from that, the Lord continues, I have come for a reason. I have come for a reason. And the reason does involve a certain dividing, a certain separating, a certain placing on one side and the other side, and that there is an opposition between these sides, between these realities. But it is an opposition predicated on this baptism that he says I must undergo and I am in anguish.

I Am in Anguish

We are not used to hearing that statement from the lips of Jesus, especially on a day that’s not Good Friday. There is an anguish in my heart, an anguish in my spirit. I am in anguish that I have not yet done . . . what I have come to do. And when he uses that very heartfelt and very painful word, I am in anguish . . .

. . . He’s speaking about how deeply everything within him wants to complete the mission of saving us. [A mission] . . . which will be that moment where he stretches out his arms on the cross and gives himself in utter thorough completeness for us and for our salvation. And speaking that way, the Lord is speaking about something more than merely a mission, something more than merely an act of obedient compliance to the will of his father.

Desire Of His Heart

He is speaking about the deep desire of his heart, which will be a source of anguish until that day arrives where he accomplishes his desire. And his desire is the salvation of the world. His desire is the giving of himself. It is the anguish, in fact, of love. The anguish of one who wants to give himself up for others.

And until he has done so, he will be restless. He will have a certain unsettled element about him. But it’s the glorious restlessness. of a love that longs to give itself away. And it’s this love, the Lord says, that will be the measure of the division he has come to produce. Because there will be those who receive it, those who respond to it, those who embrace it, and those who do not.

And the embrace of a love like this, the surrender to a love like this will appear in the eyes of those who don’t understand it, don’t value it and reject it, to be foolishness, to be stupidity, to be something that must be resisted and must be defended against. So the division the Lord is speaking about is not a violent division, not a destructive division, but that necessary division that comes when some hearts respond to a love like this and others don’t.

And it produces two very different ways of living. Two very different ways of thinking. Two very different ways of acting that can’t be reduced to one another and do not and cannot easily compromise with one another. And it’s this totality of His giving to which we respond that the Lord says, I’ve come for that.

There Will Be Division . . . On Man’s Reaction

I’ve come for that. And the consequence of what I’ve come for is that there will be division based on man’s reaction to it. Some will respond, some will not. Some will embrace, some will not. And this is the idea that runs through those challenging statements in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Where he loses a word that makes us uncomfortable.

This, this is the day for readings that make us uncomfortable, apparently. And so St. Paul talks about being slaves. And that’s not a pretty word. Let’s be honest about that. And yet St. Paul writes to the church in Rome about their slavery. And about how there’s a certain slavery that characterizes human nature, whether we like to use the word or not.

Furthermore, when St. Paul speaks this way, he is speaking on two very different levels. He is speaking on the one hand about something destructive and dehumanizing, and he is speaking on the other hand at something life giving and liberating. Both of which are described by that same word. Paul himself, in his letters, will write to the churches introducing himself as Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.

Servant and Slave

And if one reads attentively the sacred scriptures, through the Old Testament, the great figures who are identified as servants of the Lord, the word servant can equally well be translated as slave. And so note that there is a certain sense in scripture where this word becomes a badge of honor. Our Lady, at the moment of the Annunciation, when we respond it to Gabriel, describes herself, not with the technically more dainty and gentle word, handmaid, but as the slave girl of the Lord.

And this is a term that is used to express complete belonging to someone. A slave, unlike a servant, doesn’t expect a salary, doesn’t come and go as he or she pleases, but is one who lives according to the will of another. And so St. Paul, writing to the Romans, reminds them, You have already lived as slaves . . .

. . . when you’ve surrendered yourself into the mastery of your impulses. When you’ve surrendered yourself into the mastery of your emotions. And when you’ve surrendered yourself to your fear. When you’ve surrendered yourself to your self indulgence. You might think you are living as free men and women, deciding for yourselves.

Surrendering . . .

But you’ve surrendered your will. You’ve surrendered your mind. You’ve surrendered your heart to something that is mastering your will. And that’s the essence of slavery. You belong to someone. And someone or something has been your master. As Saint Paul says, there’s two kinds of masters. There’s the destructive and the dehumanizing master that brings us to nothing.

That can give us neither freedom nor life. And fallen man instinctively chooses this master, the wrong one, belonging to all of those things, surrendering ourselves into the possession of those things that cannot in the end bring us real and lasting happiness. Or St. Paul says, we can surrender ourselves to belonging to the only one . . .

. . . Your Will

. . . Who can give us the fullness of humanity, the fullness of dignity, the fullness of freedom, and the fullness of life, and that is the Lord. And so St. Paul uses this language in his language of belonging. And note how it has that same issue of being, of dividing and separating that we hear from Jesus. One either belongs to the Lord, or one doesn’t.

One either follows the Lord or one doesn’t. But if the belonging is real, it produces a measurable and a visible difference in terms of how one lives. One begins to think, to act, to move, to decide, to choose differently than what is common in the world around him or her. And… That’s noticeable. That’s measurable.

And it creates a distinction. It creates a division. Not because one hates the world, but simply because one refuses to surrender to it. One refuses to be mastered by it. And so St. Paul says, you’ve already, you know what it is to give yourselves away. You’ve just been given yourselves away wrongly. Now, take some of that energy, give yourself away rightly, learn to truly belong to the one who can truly save you.

This is why we have Psalm number one for our responsorial psalm today. This psalm that contrasts two different ways of abiding through life. There is the one – who abides in the company of the scornful; who reduce goodness to a certain kind of convenient mockery, who reduce living to following the popular impulse of the moment, the rootless heart that belongs to nothing in reality.

Root Yourself . . .

And then there is that other one who seeks to root his or her heart . . . in the will of God and that one who is grounded, that one who is rooted, the psalm says, is that one who from that very rootedness draws life and receives life and bears fruit. The first example is like the leaves that are falling off of these trees.

They’re colorful. They’re beautiful for a short amount of time. And then they’re gone. They fall from the trees. They’re blown away. They crumble and they die. And as brightly and beautifully as they appeared before our eyes, that is all they have.

And so the psalm says, that’s a choice that we can make. That’s a choice that we can make. Giving ourselves into the hand of that apparently beautiful and attractive thing that doesn’t endure and that cannot last on its own. Or we could be like the tree itself. With roots that go into the ground, holding it secure, holding it firm.

Giving it the kind of life that produces beauty more than just a single leaf. But an entire tree’s worth. Season, after season, after season, after season.

. . . In The Will of God

And the psalm simply says, without directly asking the question, what’s it going to be? But it’s a simple choice, but an important one. Where do I root myself? And note again the issue of a certain dividing, a certain separating. There is life that bears fruit, there is life that becomes fulfilled, and there is life that isn’t.

What will it be? And how wonderful it is that we can reflect on all of these things here in this place when we receive from this altar the very fruit of that anguish of Jesus. I have a baptism that I must undergo and how much anguish I will have until I do it. And it’s the anguish of wanting to give himself away. And imagine that, that anguish spoken from the lips of Jesus 2, 000 years ago, because he was looking ahead to this moment, here, today, with you and with me, in this place, around this altar.

Because here he will give himself away again, to each and every one of us. Note how marvelous that is. And in doing so, the Lord says, Root yourself in me. Belong to me. Turn to me. That is the one way, the only way to come to the fullness of life. And blessed are those who learn to walk it, even if they stumble.

Blessed are they who learn to walk it. Amen.