20th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
‘I am not here to bring peace,
but rather division’
Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England
was beheaded on a charge of treason on July
6th 1535. He had refused to take the Oath
of Supremacy, acknowledge Henry VIII as
Supreme Head of the Church of England or
accept the annulment of Henry’s marriage to
Catherine of Aragon. His final words before
execution have echoed down the ages: ‘I die the
king’s faithful servant, but God’s first’. Thomas
stood on the side of truth and his words and
deeds capture perfectly the essence of today’s
extract from St. Luke’s Gospel where Jesus says
that He came to bring division. It seems like a
contradiction that the Prince of Peace came
to bring division. But real peace is based on
truth, and if I speak the truth it will at times
cause division. The prophets stood for truth,
and they were martyred. It has been said that
all truth passes through three stages. First, it is
ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third,
it is accepted as self-evident. We must be brave,
then. We must have the courage to stand against
the crowd at times. We should never worry
about who will be offended if we speak the
truth; we should worry, rather about who will
be misled and damaged if we don’t speak it. The
fact that a great many people believe something
is no guarantee that it is true. ‘The truth is
not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the
truth’ (Laozi). Pope Benedict reminded us that
whenever we find ourselves on the side of the
majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Truth
cannot be determined by majority vote, but as in
the case of Thomas More, it will set us free!
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