Readings: Luke 12:49-53

Living a life of faith can be challenging. There are plenty of distractions: Am I working hard enough? Do I look good in what I’m wearing? Do I have the latest gadget? So we each have a choice: follow God or ‘go with the flow’. 

It is easy to categorise Jesus as the person who preached peace and love. There is plenty of scriptural evidence to support this contention. Today’s Gospel shows that he is not so easily pigeon-holed. The Gospel gives us a glimpse into prophetic Jesus. Jesus who acknowledges that following him is a challenge and that following him will divide opinion – including opinion in the same home. Meek, mild Jesus upsets nor offends anyone – the one who comforts the afflicted. 

Then, as now, there existed structural injustice including those who did very well out of the status quo. Ensuring there is justice for those afflicted requires passion – and something like ‘the fire’ to which Jesus refers in today’s Gospel. So prophetic Jesus ‘afflicts the comfortable’ – challenging the status quo. In so doing, division is created between those who wish to follow Jesus and those who follow the very human instinct of not wanting things to change.

What will my choice be?