Romans 6:19-23 / Luke 12:49-53
Reading the Bible may not be as plain and simple as we might think.
Although there are simple and profound truths in it, there are also some confusing paradoxes.
What Jesus said in today's gospel is a good example.
Isn't He the Prince of Peace who came to unite all peoples? Yet He said that He came to bring division and chaos.
So what is it now, unity or division? Peace or chaos?
Or could it be both? Well, it is like asking if the stairs go up or down.
They go both ways, and it depends on which way we want to go.
So the teachings of Jesus depends on what we want to make out of it.
St. Paul, in the 1st reading, gave a good example of how the teachings of Jesus can be applied to us concretely.
He said that our bodies can be used for vice and immorality, or we can use our bodies at the service of righteousness and sanctification and holiness.
So the teachings of Jesus is indeed like the stairs.
To reject it will inevitably lead to sin and the wages of sin is death.
To accept it and to live by it, is to have life, and which would lead to eternal life with God.