Daily Retreat 10/26/06
2006 Oct 26 Thu: Ordinary Weekday
Eph 3: 14-21/ Ps 32(33): 1-2. 4-5. 11-12. 18-19/ Lk 12: 49-53
From today’s readings: “To Him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine.... The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.... I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! ”
Total War
History provides countless examples of aggressors provoking peace-loving peoples to legitimate self-defense. Before commencing hostilities, often the belligerent party offers a bitter ultimatum: surrender or prepare for battle! Now, if the ruler of the threatened nation decides to resist, his decision indeed results in war for his people, but not because of his own desire for violence, but only because the peace paid for with subjugation is but a cruel and worthless travesty of true peace.
Because we hail Jesus at Christmas as the Prince of Peace, it’s quite unsettling to hear Him clearly assert that His coming brings division, rather than peace (see today’s Gospel verses, and also Luke 22:36). But in these matters, it is not Jesus who desires or provokes division, for it is the Devil who sows enmity and causes divisions. Yet the Lord’s spirited and adamant resistance to Evil aggression nonetheless results in the present total war for the hearts and souls of all men.
But this is spiritual warfare, and not a mere physical battle to be fought with earthly weapons. And in this spiritual war, there is no neutrality - one is either with Jesus and fighting for the peace of His parousia, or one is willing to settle for the infernal peace promised to those willing to tolerate evil and subjugate themselves to sin. The drama of life is in the choosing of sides....
Eph 3: 14-21/ Ps 32(33): 1-2. 4-5. 11-12. 18-19/ Lk 12: 49-53
From today’s readings: “To Him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine.... The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.... I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! ”
Total War
History provides countless examples of aggressors provoking peace-loving peoples to legitimate self-defense. Before commencing hostilities, often the belligerent party offers a bitter ultimatum: surrender or prepare for battle! Now, if the ruler of the threatened nation decides to resist, his decision indeed results in war for his people, but not because of his own desire for violence, but only because the peace paid for with subjugation is but a cruel and worthless travesty of true peace.
Because we hail Jesus at Christmas as the Prince of Peace, it’s quite unsettling to hear Him clearly assert that His coming brings division, rather than peace (see today’s Gospel verses, and also Luke 22:36). But in these matters, it is not Jesus who desires or provokes division, for it is the Devil who sows enmity and causes divisions. Yet the Lord’s spirited and adamant resistance to Evil aggression nonetheless results in the present total war for the hearts and souls of all men.
But this is spiritual warfare, and not a mere physical battle to be fought with earthly weapons. And in this spiritual war, there is no neutrality - one is either with Jesus and fighting for the peace of His parousia, or one is willing to settle for the infernal peace promised to those willing to tolerate evil and subjugate themselves to sin. The drama of life is in the choosing of sides....
posted by FrPitstick | 10/24/2006
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