1st Reading: Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10
2nd Reading: Hebrews 12: 1-4
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53
Homily: Tuck Grinnell (paraphrased from notes taken)
A short bio about the prison statement (copied below). Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II. Jägerstätter was sentenced to death and executed on August 9, 1943 for his refusal to fight for Nazi Germany. He was later declared a martyr and beatified by the Catholic Church. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter)
Edith Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a Discalced Carmelite nun (Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce). She is canonized as a martyr and saint (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein) of the Catholic Church. While sent to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands for safety, she and all baptized Catholics of Jewish origin were arrested by the Gestapo on August 2, 1942 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they were murdered in a gas chamber on August 9, 1942. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Stein).
Franz is quite a challenge for me. He is such an example: everyone told him to just go along, they exerted every kind of pressure on him.
From today’s Gospel we hear:
Jesus said to the disciples: “I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think I am here to bring peace on earth? I tell you, the opposite is true…
Although we know from Luke’s Gospel that Jesus prayed three times asking God to take “this cup” from him – he is committed to complete his mission.
Are we willing to step into the arena for the truth thereby awakening truth to people we are ministering to (journeying with)? I’m ashamed for the times I have walked away from true discipleship. Jesus didn’t walk away – he accepted his mission.
Community Dialogue: (reprinted with permission)
Instances when our faith has been costly
Diana: From the age of 6, I lived in two homes: in New York during the school year with my Mother and Grandmother and in Indiana during the summer with my Father and Stepfamily. I had trouble adjusting to my Father’s family and would get homesick during the summer. In third grade I had the most wonderful teacher, Mrs. Duffy, who introduced me to the Catholic faith – which became another home for me. My father was a Methodist who played golf on Sundays. My Stepmother was a Christian Scientist. Neither would take me to church on Sundays and made it known I’d have to get there myself. I did and the reward was I did finally begin to feel more comfortable with my Father’s family.
Megan: I am a cradle Catholic. I was a pre-teen when PAX formed and my family was a part of PAX in the early 1970s. We really thought we were on to something. Then came the separation from St. Luke Catholic. My parents hosted a community discussion where the pastor told PAX members the parish was no longer going to do things PAX’s way and he was not going to be our shepherd! We were a church divided and I was shaken. It’s been a privilege to see PAX move forward from that beginning. To paraphrase Vince Cushing, PAX is what the Catholic faith needs.
Marian: I’ve heard, “Christian living is by its nature subversive.” I attended Catholic school (“Holy Angels”) until we moved from Philadelphia to the suburbs – when I started public school. My father is Ukrainian (he emigrated at age 17 during WWII) and my family started attending a Byzantine Rite Catholic Church. Masses were in Church Slavonic and I didn’t get much out of them. I went years without going to church. My husband is Methodist and we tried “church shopping” but were each looking for something different. My faith only deepened when I found PAX. I always remember the shock of hearing Joan Urbanczyk saying things like, “I don’t believe in Hell; I don’t believe in a God who would sentence people to Hell” and “We are either all saved, or no one is saved.” I’ve been spiritually nourished at PAX ever since. (When thinking about the cost of discipleship – for me, it’s accepting fallout from speaking truth to power in any given situation – interpersonal, communal, or political.)
Dick: One day when I was in the first grade our pastor, Fr. Fred Gettlefinger, strode into our classroom and enchanted us with stories about the early priests and religious women who opened up Nelson, Larue, Marion and Washington counties in Kentucky to the spread of Catholicism. When Fr. Gettlefinger finished his talk he asked, “Would any of you boys like to become a priest?” From that day on I felt called to be a priest. I entered the seminary when I was 14 years old. In my second year high school I failed two courses: plane geometry and second year Latin. I had to retake these two subjects in summer school. When I returned for my third year of high school, I was enrolled in Latin with Father Charlie who was the seminary registrar. Once again I had a hard time with Latin and second-year algebra. About two months into my junior year Father Charlie came and sat beside me in study hall one morning and said to me, “Richard, I don’t know what we’re going to do with you; you’re not doing well in my Latin class.” I told him my problem was I had five classes in a row and a hard time doing the homework. He thought for a moment and said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to let you drop second-year algebra and I will give you the needed credit for graduation by crediting you for your public speaking class (which none of my classmates received).” I was jubilant until it began to dawn on me, “Dick,” I said to myself, “you’re not going to make it if you don’t start taking your studies seriously.,,you’ve got to bear down and learn how to learn.” It was very difficult; but I did indeed learn how to learn. If it were not for Father Charlie taking the time and caring enough to give me a second chance I may never have been ordained. And, as I said, the only thing I ever wanted to do and to be in my life was to be a priest!
Rosa: Many of you know me so well. I consider PAX my family because I am alone here from Chile. When I married Ben, so many PAX members helped us. Ben was a Methodist; I never asked him to join PAX – he did it himself. PAX is unique. There are so many PAX pilgrims who are no longer with us and I still ask them for help. I’m thankful for PAX – you gave me a new life and I am still grateful.
Marie: I haven’t thought about discipleship in terms of cost. It was very much in the PAX community that I heard a call with respect to a lifestyle and lifetime. My first move was from McLean to a farm and then to the Assisi Community. There were tremendous costs along the way. When we moved the Assisi Community into a pretty rough neighborhood in Washington D.C. there were many who thought it was insane. Indeed, it’s not been easy. But, it’s often the inconsequential things, letting go of small things in life – and the cost is pretty ongoing. A month doesn’t go by that I don’t ask, “Can I do this another month?” Then, on reflection, there are so many gifts and relationships that I also wonder, “It this really a cost?”
Mike M (posted in the chat box): Thank you planners. Here is an exhortation from Marie in 2005 that fits in with our theme you may find inspiring.
- Open your heart; say yes; take some risks; cross borders; keep growing;
- Try to look at reality through the eyes of those who are poor, living on the margins of life, excluded;
- Make a life’s commitment to something you believe in, something that gives your life meaning;
- Integrate your values into the work you choose to do and into the way you live;
- Just take the next right step – you’ll know where to go once you get there;
- Find community – create or recreate it if you have to; and
- Remember, always remember, that your life is a work in progress. Let the Spirit of the Living God lead the way.
Read more at: https://discover.trinitydc.edu/ministry/marie-dennis-64/
Tuck: This is not just something to think about the past but an invitation of the present. After our mass today, when we all go home, think able what cost are you willing to pay going forward.
Prison Statement:
Mass planners asked members to read the following “Letters and Writings from Prison” by Franz Jägerstätter prior to today’s liturgy. Franz Jägerstätter (1907 – 1943), an Austrian peasant and devout Catholic, was imprisoned and later executed for opposing the Nazis and refusing to serve in Hitler’s army. He was beatified in 2007.
“Now I’ll write down a few words and they come to me from my heart. Although I am writing them with my hands in chains, this is still much better than if my will were in chains.
God sometimes shows his power, which he wishes to give to human beings, to those who love him and do not place earthly matters ahead of eternal ones. Not prison, not chains, and not even death are capable of separating people from the love of God, of robbing them of their faith and free will [see Rom. 8:31-39]. God’s power is invincible.
“Be obedient, and submit to authority.” These words are flying today at a person from all sides, especially from people who no longer believe anything that exists in Sacred Scripture and that God has commanded us to believe. If someone were to concern himself with what these people are saying, then he would assume that heaven is in fact in this world. For instead of being concerned about saving me from serious sins and directing me toward eternal life, these people are concerned about rescuing me from an earthly death.
They always want to prick my conscience concerning my responsibilities for my wife and children. Is the action that someone does somehow morally better because this person is married and has children? Or is the action better or worse because thousands of other Catholics are doing it? Has smoking a cigarette also become a virtue because thousands of Catholics are doing it? Is someone permitted to lie in taking an oath just because he has a wife and children? Did not Christ himself say that whoever loves wife, mother and children more than me is not worthy of me? [see Luke 14:26]. On what basis do we ask God for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit if we should adhere to blind obedience in any case?
I believe that someone can calmly adhere to blind obedience only when one will surely not harm anyone else. If people were totally honest today–as some Catholics are, I believe–they would have to say, “Yes, I see that the acts that I am required to do are not morally good, but I am simply not ready to die [for refusing to do them].”
If God had not bestowed on me the grace and power to die for my faith–if this is demanded of me–then I would be doing the same as the majority of people are doing. God can give someone as much grace as God wants. If other men and women had received as much grace as I have obtained, they would have perhaps done much more good than I have done.”
Meditation: Psalm 34
I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.