Oil and Water

Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

Lk.12:51

Jesus reminds his disciples he is a radical change-agent that overrides all other allegiances. 

Why would the Prince of Peace say he has come to bring division and clearly division within families? I remember a line from the Chronicles of Narnia. "Aslan is not a tame lion." In the same manner, Jesus is not a tame God.

There is an oil and water affect that takes place when one becomes Christian. I experienced this among my own family and friends. We saw the world from different perspectives. What I would happily do and say with friends previously I no longer did. A distance, especially painful within my family, grew between us. 

Yet these are the very ones I want to reach out to with the love of Jesus. I guess the message is, don't compromise. Speak the truth but speak it in love. Be the truth but be it in love. 

Jesus, your own family misunderstood you, thought you were mad. Help me be a constant, loving witness for you within my own family.

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.