Thursday 26 October 2023

Today is Thursday 26 October, in the 29th week of Ordinary time.

The monks of Pluscarden Abbey sing Ecce quam bonum: “ How good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity! It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.”

(Lyrics currently unavailable)

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 12:49-53

‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

How do you reconcile this with your usual way of seeing and understanding Jesus and his message in today’s passage? Notice how you sit with this talk of “division”…

Jesus expects his message to foster divisions within families, father against son, mother opposing daughter. How true is this to your own experience?

What is it about the teaching of Jesus that, in your view, will cause so much dissension?

Hearing the passage again, try to see how it might be regarded as “good news”.

In these last moments of the prayer-time, respond in your own words to the one who promises to bring not peace but division.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.