Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus wants to set the world ablaze, he says in the Gospel.  He wants us to love and serve God all the more.  But He warns that this is not going to bring about peace in the world, but division: even to the point of dividing families.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the words of our Holy Father, Pope Francis.  He isn't saying anything new; everything he has said in interviews and his own writings has all been said before in the Catechism and other documents and in the Scriptures.  He is, however, challenging us to live these teachings out more in our day to day lives.  We all know that Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as well as our enemies, but to have the Holy Father calling us to really live that out is quite a challenge.  We have to go outside of our comfort zone to do these things.  It is tempting to brush it off as we say we are already doing enough.  But before we despair of having to do all this "new stuff", remember that God is going to help us and give us the grace and courage to do what we need to do.  There is a challenge, but we have help.