Homily for 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
17 August 2025
Readings: Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
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In today’s first reading, we find the prophet Jeremiah dumped in a cistern flaying around in the mud and starving. How did it come to this? Jeremiah was an honest prophet who brought tales of woe to two kings of Judah – first, Jehoiakim, and then Zedekiah. Each king had to confront mortal enemies. And each king was on the losing side. The kings’ underlings thought that Jeremiah was bad news and should be done away with. He was undermining the confidence of the people and of the kings’ soldiers. He was not telling either king what they wanted to hear. And it was suspected that his messages of appeasement were motivated by sympathy for the enemy. Every step of the way, Jeremiah’s motivation was noble; he was committed to the truth; and his prophecy was accurate. But he was confronting evil. Once Jeremiah was released from the cistern, King Zedekiah said to him: ‘I want to ask you for a word, keep nothing back from me.’ ·Jeremiah answered Zedekiah, ‘If I tell you, surely you will have me put to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.’ Sometimes in our world, the prophetic one with upright intention and a commitment to truth finds themselves in the face of evil, in a no-win situation, and they are not always listened to.
This is the world which Jesus came to save. Most of the time, we like to emphasise that Jesus proclaimed a message of peace and reconciliation. And he did. But he confronted evil and he went to the cross for it. It was not all sweetness and light. There were times when he had to confront full-on those opposed to him and his message. In today’s second reading from Hebrews, we are told: ‘Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.’
In today’s gospel from Luke, Jesus declares: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! …Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.’ This declaration is so at odds with the promise of peace which Luke builds up in the infancy narratives. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist prays his Benedictus: ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel’. The one to come is ‘to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ At the birth of Jesus, the shepherds in the field hear the angels praising God and singing: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to people who enjoy his favour.’ When Simeon meets the child Jesus and his parents in the Temple, he prays his Nunc Dimittis: ‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go peace, just as you promised’.
Scripture scholar Luke Timothy Johnson tells us that ‘those who accept the prophet have this peace, but they are then separated from those who reject the prophet’s message’.[1]
We are to expect conflict when truth is pitted against worldly forces; when good is pitted against evil. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that this conflict could even fracture families. We moderns tend to underplay the conflict with evil. I have to confess to being one of those modern Catholics who found Pope Francis’s constant references to the devil somewhat confronting, even a little off-putting. In his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate he referred to the devil 15 times and declared: ‘[W]e should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable. The devil does not need to possess us. He poisons us with the venom of hatred, desolation, envy and vice. When we let down our guard, he takes advantage of it to destroy our lives, our families and our communities. “Like a roaring lion, he prowls around, looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8).’[2]
In this apostolic exhortation, Francis wrote: ‘The Christian life is a constant battle. We need strength and courage to withstand the temptations of the devil and to proclaim the Gospel. This battle is sweet, for it allows us to rejoice each time the Lord triumphs in our lives.’[3]
Lord, come to my aid!
I have waited, waited for the Lord,
and he stooped toward me.
Lord, come to my aid!
The Lord heard my cry.
He drew me out of the pit of destruction,
out of the mud of the swamp;
he set my feet upon a crag;
he made firm my steps.
Lord, come to my aid!
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
Many shall look on in awe
and trust in the Lord.
Lord, come to my aid!
Though I am afflicted and poor,
yet the Lord thinks of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, hold not back!
Lord, come to my aid!
References
[1] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Sacra Pagina Series (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 208.
[2] Gaudete Et Exsultate #161 available at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20180319_gaudete-et-exsultate.html.
[3] Gaudete Et Exsultate #158.
