A Reflection for Thursday, 26th October 2023: 29th Week, Ordinary Time (Year A)
There is a very short comedy clip online. This clip carries a strong declarative statement of a man saying “I don’t want peace! I want problems, always”, which simply means that the man in question does not intend peace at that particular time but wants divisions. This short online clip resonates with Jesus’s disruptive claim in today’s Gospel. The Gospel text from Luke 12:49-53 presents Jesus telling us what He came to be and do. He says “I have come [with emphasis] to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already… Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three” (Luke 12:49, 51-52). This is somewhat a disruptive message as opposed to the love-your-neighbour-and-live-peacefully-messages of Jesus, for how can a person be peaceful and loving and also be disruptive at the same time? I think a little bit of disruption is necessary for significantly altering a novel perspective of our being and doing.
There is a tendency to feel too comfortable and build castles of comfort around ourselves such that we no longer desire to widen the space of our tent (Isaiah 54:2) and seek depth in our studies. We can easily rely on technologies like ChatGPT and artificial intelligence at our reach to help us avoid depth in our studies. This approach may only add more value to the growth of ChatGPT and the artificial intelligence repositories than to us, which consequently leaves us half-bake and with less depth in our studies. What we fail to pay attention to is that the more often we interact with ChatGPT, the better it becomes and the more sophisticated it becomes than us. But the more disruptive, in-depth studies we undertake, the better refine and more depth we attain in our mission of studies, which greatly shapes our identity for other missions. This is the kind of disruption that Jesus refers to in the gospel of today, one that moves us from the ordinariness of engaging with events to an extraordinary depth of engaging with events of life.
The Gospel text of today speaks of purpose. We can find textual evidence in verses 49 and 51 where Jesus says “I have come to” and “I am here to” (Luke 12: 49 & 51). The word purpose holds a strong significance for us. In the Spiritual Exercises, we pray with the principle and foundation, where we become aware of our purpose which is to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord and through this means save our souls (Sp. Ex. 22). Our primary purpose is God, whom we strongly believe keeps His promises to us, despite the boredom and tiredness that studies could bring, and for whom we exist and without whom our existence is void of purpose. Our purpose here in this place is to study and live together with one another despite the diversity which might appear daunting. Our collective purpose is to advance the kingdom of God as we go through the history of ideas and make meaning of them. What could pose a challenge to this purpose is the fact that we are limited beings – we often forget. But it does not mean that God is no longer with us, it only means that we have the examen to help us keep tabs on our forgetfulness.
My dear friends, like Jesus in the gospel of today, what have you come here for? Why are you here? How are you responding to your mission of studies? Is its nature of a disruptive, in-depth study? What challenges do you face? What castles of comfort prevent you from widening your tent? What technologies are making you too comfortable? And whose purpose are you fulfilling?
May the Lord bless His words in our hearts both now and forever more. Amen.
Reflection By
Michael Ikpodon Akatsi SJ