A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Now this is a continuation of the readings we've been having from Saint Matthew on the occasion of our lord sending out his disciples. Now just listen to what he promises them. Puts it puts the fear of the lord in. Jesus said to his apostles, do not suppose that my mission on Earth is to spread peace.
My mission is to spread not peace but division, conflict. I have come this is our lord speaking now. These these are the words he's telling his disciple just as he's sending them out to the wolves. He says, I have come to set a man at odds with his father, a daughter with her mother, a daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law. In short, to make a man's enemies those of his own very household.
Whoever loves mother or father, son or daughter, more than he loves me is not worthy of me. He who will not take up his cross and come after me is not worthy of me. He who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin. On the other hand, he who brings himself to naught for my sake discovers who he is. He who welcomes you welcomes me, and he who welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.
He who welcomes a prophet because he bears the name of a prophet receives a prophet's reward. He who welcomes a holy man because he is known as holy receives a holy man's reward. I promise you that whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these lowly ones because he is a disciple will not want for his reward. When Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he left that locality to teach and to preach in their towns. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord.
Praise be to you, lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. As I said, this puts the fear of the lord in you if you take it seriously. And I have a suspicion that our blessed lord intended what he was saying to be taken seriously. Notice our lord said, I have come to create division.
I have come and then he then in case it in case that was not fully grasped, he says and he repeats, I have come not for peace but to spread conflict. He repeats the idea so that it's not lost. And then he gets very graphic and concrete to and and keep in mind when you when you talk about a family in our lord's time, you're talking about a Jewish family where the the bond was tremendously close and tight even as it is today among Jewish families. And here our lord is saying, I have come to set father against his kids, the kids against his father, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. You you you know, his driving at home, you almost think he's beating a dead horse.
And yet we don't listen to this. You see, today, we have to have ecumenism. What in the world that means? I know what the words mean, but what does it mean in fact? In many instances, it means you're dilating the diluting the truth to even to the extent in which you say there is no truth.
There don't talk about blacks and whites. Talk about grays. Don't talk about value judgments. After all, there is no such thing. Everything is relative.
I've I heard that within the last twenty four hours by a Catholic graduate of a Catholic college. He said it was a he. He says, all you have in ethics is relativity. Said it as if he was pontificating from the pope's chair. So this is the way this is the thing that our lord has come absolutely to oppose.
With Jesus Christ, there's a yes and there's a no. There's a positive and a negative. There is indeed a right and a wrong. I'm not aware that Jesus Christ read Aristotle's logic, even the first two books. I'm not aware that he did.
But our blessed lord had something which is tremendously contradictory of our present day thinking, if you can call it thinking. It's what we call the principle of contradiction. If you accept one proposition, you have to reject its contradictory. They can't be true together, and they can't be false together. That, of course, is a hard doctrine.
Old man Luther threw that out because he put Aristotle as deep in hell as he put the pope. Because he's Luther saw the force of this. This is reasoning. If you say a is b, you have to say the contradictory of that, that a is not b. You have to say that is false.
And if you love the one, you have to hate the other. And if you hate the one, you have to love the other. Or as our blessed lord said, you cannot serve two masters. Either you will love one and hate the other, and you know the rest. This is a hard doctrine.
Don't ever to be a Christian is a hard thing. It's not fun and games. Our lord keeps hammering at it. And yet today, we don't like to hear this. We don't like to hear something that we say divides us.
We must be all united. United about what? It's like old John Dewey saying education for life. What life? Whose life?
Well, we're we're reaping we are reaping now the consequences of old man Dewey. Believe me. Our blessed lord stands for something absolute. In short, he stands for claiming to be god almighty, pure and simple. And if you accept Jesus Christ, you have to reject what rejects him, the contradictories of Jesus Christ, son of god.
You can't have it both ways. As I've said many times, if you love the if you find the world loving you, then one of two things has happened. Either the world has become fully Christian or you have become totally the world. You have no other choice because you cannot put the two together. Our lord said you can't, and yet we keep on trying to do it.
And when I say we we, I mean little old me too because we're living in this world. And the world that god created is a good world. Never forget it. Never never blame money for the love of money. And so in listening to what we've read today, it is pretty awesome.
It is fearful. It is fearful. But let us not be afraid when we meet it in reality. Let us not let us not hesitate to stand up even when we know we are going to be put down terribly. Because as our lord says, that's when you're going to be strongest.
The world will persecute you. They it will hate you. It will even kill you. Our lord said this for my name's sake. For my name's sake.
And down the centuries, men and women have done it. Now you wouldn't have guessed, but I intended to talk this morning in Saint Benedict. Well, I have my eye on that clock. But I do wish to bring Saint Benedict in here because Saint Benedict started something one hundred years after the a hundred years he died after Saint Augustine who died in 04/30. He died in the sixth century, Saint Benedict.
And I've had the the I would say the great privilege of spending time in the number of Benedictine monasteries including Monte Cassino. And now here is a way of a of of living one's faith that has endured since May and is still with us. And I never will forget in Montserrat, there's a tablet there, a big bronze tablet commemorating the fact that Saint Ignatius of Loyola came there in Montserrat, Monte Cassino I mean, Montserrat to spend a retreat where which changed his life. His life has already been changed, but this was this is where he got his mission. Monster Rock was ancient when Loyola came.
It was ancient. That meant a lot to me to see that there's continuity. There is a living answer to the fact you can't serve two masters. The Benedictine life has proved itself a worthy way of serving God and man. You can't divorce these two things.
It takes the view that there is a God. That takes the view that there is an absolute and that that absolute is worth living for. Not that everybody's going to live it in the same way, but the word for there is important, that we all have to live for god. The way we do it may be different. And as soon as you take that attitude, as soon as you take that position, as you as soon as you make that commitment, you are divorcing yourself from a lot of other things which you cannot have and which if you love one, you will hate.
Hate because the contradictory and contrary of love is hate. Let's not let us not run away from the world. Hate's a good word if you're hating the right things. And so on this feast of Saint Benedict, let's take that in connection with what our lord is saying today and not to take it in any pessimistic way. Our lord did not bring us a doctrine of gloom and doom.
He did not. But he brought us a hard doctrine, which he says, if you accept and take up your cross after me, you will find it all sweet and your burden light. Light. In the name of the father, of the son, holy spirit. Amen.