Today’s Gospel is not an easy one to read, let alone preach on.  Jesus makes some pretty bold statements that, read in the wrong context, can upset people; although, I guess even read in the correct context, it could still upset people.  Jesus is fully aware that not everyone is going to be on board with His teachings. This is what he is preparing us for. Remember, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Everything Jesus tells us and does is truth and its love.  Jesus is God; God is love; therefore, everything Jesus says and does is rooted in love.  God is also the fullness of truth.  God can’t be contradicted in anyway, or else God wouldn’t be all-powerful and all-knowing. It is for these reasons that Jesus says He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
 
Pope Benedict XVI and the late Cardinal George spoke a lot on the dictatorship of relativism.  This western mindset that is plaguing and destroying our culture says that all truth is relative.  You have your truth, I have my truth, and as long as our truths don’t violate anyone’s rights, it’s all good!  Well, who’s to say that your truth or mine violates someone’s rights?  What are rights?  Who says any of us have the right to anything?  Human rights?  What does that mean?  I don’t believe in human rights.  See where the problem lies?  
 
Friends, there is an objective truth and that truth leads to and flows from almighty God.  In order for God to be God, that deity has to be all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, and eternal.  None of those can be temporary or contradictory.  Now, as disciples of Jesus, we believe Jesus is God incarnate.  So, everything Jesus says and does has the same attributes as God does, since Jesus is God.  Therefore, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Why am I focusing on this so much?
 
Jesus is warning us of division because there will be people, and we all have them in our lives, who will have a hard time believing the truth that Jesus brings to our lives. Many people reject Christ and His teachings.  This is the division Jesus is preparing us for in our Gospel.  Jesus is preparing us for it so that we won’t be caught off guard. Jesus is giving us a heads up that it will happen, no matter how much we set the world on fire with His love.  
 
Cardinal George used to say that the immediate future of the Church looks like we will be leaner and meaner. What the Cardinal meant by that is we will shrink in size and we will stand for something.  If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. This is NOT what Jesus wants to happen. Jesus wants us to be faithful disciples who defend the truth.  The beautiful martyrs of the Church knew what it meant to set the world on fire.  The early disciples and apostles who went out to all the world proclaiming the Good News that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. They were ready to set the world on fire.  
 
Friends, we need to set the world on fire.  We need to get out from these sacred walls and proclaim to every one who will listen that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!  We need to tell them that God became one of us so He could save us and we could rise from the dead like He did.  This is the evangelization we are called to.  This is how we are to set the world on fire.