1. 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Christ shows two cities.
In the Gospel of the 20th Sunday in Ordinary time, Christ describes two cities. The City of God ruled by the Holy Spirit; and the City of man ruled by the devil. Each city shows visible sign by which all men can identify them. The City of God can be known by their obedience to the commands of God found both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. The City of men can be known by their disobedience to God’s command and obedience to man’s every caprice…….or slavish obedience to the prince of darkness.
2. Christ declares.
I came come to light a fire on the earth. Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? I assure you the contrary is true. I have come for division.
The fire is the Word of God that fills the hearts of those in the City of God. It is also Charity or the love of God and neighbour. The Gospel cleanses the mind; it revives those dead to sin. This fire, also consumes sins and renews the soul, St. Thomas of Aquinas continues. And Christ was in a hurry to kindle that fire.
The same fire burns all carnal desires and helps bewail the evil it has done; with the conscience accusing itself thus filling itself with the sorrow of repentance
3. Fire is meant to perfect the Christian.
Christ was in a hurry to hasten His passion precisely because after His passion, man can be made perfect because Christ’s instruction would be finished with the apostles receiving of the Holy Spirit.
After Pentecost the instruction of the apostles would be perfect, so the listeners would know how to become perfect. After Pentecost ‘be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect’ becomes the rule for all Christians. Thus the need to be contemplatives or to reach the perfection of the three theological virtues.
4. The steps taken by Christ.
Christ, first, came to light the fire on the earth. These are the souls that are filled with the Holy Spirit because they have obeyed all the commands of Christ as perfectly as it is possible here on earth. They have lived the spirituality of the Catholic Church as taught from Advent up to Pentecost. This spirituality is reviewed again after Pentecost and all through the 33 Sundays in Ordinary time.
Then Christ would divide the world; on one side are those filled with the Holy Spirit shown in their obedience to all the commands of God as found in both the Old and New Testament and as elaborated in the writings of the Apostles and further explained by the Fathers of the Church.
On the other side are those who have disobeyed the commands of God shown in their disobedience even to just one command since St. James wrote; ‘disobedience to one is disobedience to all.’
These two groups cannot go together. They are separated and must be separated. St. Paul wrote that the members of the City of God should have nothing to do with the other city. They should not even eat with them. There should be a wall between them; and the doors between them should be shut.
5. The 6th day scenario.
Then Christ describes a scenario that happened before and will happen today; ‘father will be split against son, mother against daughter, mother in law against daughter in law.’ That is total chaos within the family especially if the father, mother, mother in law go against one child. Again, the only reason for this conflict is because the one child wish to be within the City of God while the rest of the family want to be in the City of man; or because the child wants to do God’s Will while the rest of the family would want to do their own egoistical will and impose it on the one child.
St. Thomas of Aquinas described this as a type of the 6th day, Good Friday, which eschatologically is what will happen today, year 2016. Wherein the entire family, from grand parents to parents, from brother and sisters to cousins would stop one child who decides to truly seek God. There will be no opposition if the one child will enter a place where he really cannot find God, like in most religious convents today.
But this is not enough. The violent objection will not come only, from the immediate family; the family will be aided by nuns, priests, bishops, cardinals and even the Pope in stopping the young child from serving God. Again, the opposition and attempts to stop this child will be very violent. The child stands against the whole world, as the song states. The child’s support will only come from ‘similar’ persons of the same intent, i.e. members of the City of God.
The Gospel defines the demarcation line between the City of God, those who obey the commands of Christ, and the City of man, those who follow their own caprices. The 2 billion Catholics will shrink to a few hundreds within the City of God. The rest will follow and go to the City of Man where their main concern are the things of the earth, like evolution and global warming, while enjoying wallowing in their sins of adultery, sacrilege, etc.
We see here the classical battle between a few fired with the flame of the Holy Spirit and the very many fired by their passions and lust. This is the ongoing battle. It is not a sign of the end of the world. But St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote that this is a sign of the approaching of the end of the world, the 6th day (Good Friday). We can never know when the end of the world will be. But we can know how far or how near it is. This is a knowledge given exclusively to the faithful so that if they have not reached Charity they would have enough time to reach it. But it will be hopeless for those still wallowing in their sins. They would not have enough time to catch up. Why? Because it takes some time to reach Faith, Hope and Charity. God is kind enough to warn us whether we still have enough time or we have just run out of time. And this Gospel is the demarcation time.
If we are experiencing father going against son, mother against daughter, priests against priests, bishops against cardinals and Pope against the whole Catholic Church…….then we should hurry up and reach Charity to be saved. If we take our sweet time, we won’t make it on time and will be lost. This Gospel is the warning sign, as
Christ said ‘that I am by the door.’ There is no time for all the proposals of Pope Francis, like the Church Olympics? Or getting a new European pass port?