ORDINARY 20 (C)

Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. – Luke 12: 51

Once upon a time, the Devil & a friend went for a walk. They saw a man ahead of them stoop down & pick up something from the road. “What did the man find?” asked the friend. “A piece of truth,” said the Devil. “Doesn’t that disturb you?” asked the friend. “No, it does not,” the Devil said. “I shall allow him to make a religious belief out of it.”

   It would seem that the Devil has been particularly successful in giving us one piece of truth from which we have made a religious belief: the portrait of a benign, sweet, marshmallow Jesus. Some devotional books on Christ have such an elevated sugar content that one reading could induce diabetes.

   The fact is that our Lord generated hostility. The fire He came to set was not the soft flames from logs in the hearth. He refused to be treated with indifference. True disciples will also generate hostility:

On August 9, 1943, the Nazis executed an Austrian peasant farmer. He was not a spy or saboteur, nor a part of any scheme to assassinate Hitler. He was in fact, a young man of quite limited education, a no body. He was a devout Catholic who served as a sacristan in the village church. His name was Franz Jägerstatter.

   How did this very ordinary man become a threat to the state? It was simple: he opposed the Nazis because he thought they were wrong. He voted “no” in the nearly unanimous plebiscite in 1938 that ratified the Nazi takeover of Austria. That made him different & noticed.

   He refused to contribute to Nazi-sponsored collections. He refused to take any assistance from the now Nazi-controlled government. When inducted into military service during WW II, he refused to serve as a soldier in Hitler’s army, knowing that the penalty would be death. He was arrested, held in prison for a few months, & then beheaded.

   During the time of his resistance, divisions were rife. His pastor advised him to think of his duty to his country, & above all, to his family. His bishop felt that, though sincere, Franz was in error. Later on, when the war was over, the bishop refused to publish articles about Franz in the diocesan newspaper on the grounds that such articles might create confusion & disturb conscience.

   There was only one silent witness to his heroism. There was a Catholic chaplain in the Brandenburg prison on the same day Franz was executed at 4 in the afternoon. That evening, the priest spoke with come Austrian nuns who were working in Berlin. He told them that he would never forget the joy shining in this man’s eyes & the confidence with which he lived his final hours.

   The priest concluded by telling the sisters, “I can only congratulate you on this countryman of yours who lived as a saint & has now died a hero. I say with certainty that this simple man is the only saint I have ever met in my lifetime.”

   Being a prophet means taking a stand, & that means division. In a way, if we have never caused division in our lives or the lives of others, it may suggest a low level of Christianity. If we have not suffered for the truth – turning down a bribe, rejecting smut, refusing to one-up our neighbors, opposing abortion – we may very well have only a small piece of the truth from which we have erected a whole religious belief. The Devil may be laughing all the way to Hell.  AMEN!