Do You Think I've Come to Establish Peace? Not.

You know a lot of the time I go to mass, hear the readings, and by the end of the day I forget what they were. It's not so much to say that the message hasn't been absorbed into my thick skull, but I just have a poor memory and don't remember what it was. I'm always sort of impressed when people can recite chapter and verse, I'm usually just lucky if I can tell you what I had for lunch. I suppose some people have a brain for that and I just don't.

When Fr. Fred used to give the homily we'd remember the gospel though... gosh we miss him. Anyway, forgetting the gospel didn't happen today. It was one of those ones that is just so striking when I heard it that it will probably be rattling inside my head for a while (which is always a good thing).

Gospel
Lk 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Its one of those readings where Jesus isn't the happy-go-lucky, fuzzy guy that they used to have us make collages about in CCD (yeah we didn't learn much...). Its one of those tell it like it is moments.

And maybe it made me a little worried since I live in a household of five. Haha.