The Dividing Line

Gospel: Luke 12: 49-53

In today's Gospel portion we are shocked to find Jesus speaking about bringing division into the world.  However, the source of that division is found in the baptism that Jesus is to receive, the baptism of the cross.  The cross has been a source of contention with Jesus' disciples who consistently reject the idea of the suffering servant Messiah whenever Jesus raises it.  St. Paul continually noted how the cross was the stumbling block for Gentile and Jew alike.  

The cross is also in our own time something continually rejected.  There are endless reinventions of Jesus along political and cultural lines that conveniently align with whatever ideology we possess and which leaves aside any notion of the cross.  Countless forms of Christianity will give us whatever message we want to hear as long as the cross is omitted from the program.  

But we delude ourselves.  We can't avoid the cross any more than we can avoid death itself.  When we re-create Jesus into our own political image and likeness, then we are the ones creating the division.  If we accepted the cross as Jesus did, then we would have the same peace he did, the same union with God he did, and the same resurrection he did.  The cross is the only path to glory, the only authentic Christianity.