Offensive Oratory – Missionary Commentary for Sunday, August 17, 2025

Offensive Oratory

A middle-aged couple came up to me after Mass one day, recently.

“You should avoid terms like ‘concentration camps’, ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and ‘Gestapo tactics,’” they said.

I didn’t argue with them, but merely thanked them for their feedback, feeling that there were enough shouting matches going on in our country at the moment. “Tell me more,” I might have better responded.

My mission experiences in Chile and Mexico also brought me to situations of division and conflict within families and in society in general, regarding the Church’s role in polarizing times—where basic human rights were violently disrespected by totalitarian governments, needing to be denounced, and where the victims were attended to and cared for out of solidarity with the oppressed and vulnerable.

At Mass, people I had never seen before would occasionally shout out during sermons, trying to create a commotion when I grew critical of the military regime of Pinochet, or of our own immigration policies.

But out of mission experience, I discovered how to increasingly live in harmony with the will of God, whether in threatening circumstances or wide approval, and how to dismiss either reaction as ultimately of little importance. I learned from many Chilean, Mexican and Texan Catholics to let myself to be guided by the Holy Spirit, who will always open up for us the best way to run the race, and endure the cost, of keeping Christ as our ultimate model in life.

Notes on the Readings

First Reading, Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
The Lord called Jeremiah to be a prophet to Judah in the midst of political convulsions, and King Zedekiah allows the prophet to be killed, but without bloodshed (see Gen 37:18). Jeremiah is quickly saved from starvation, but will witness the fall of his country to Babylon’s military in 587 B.C.E.

Responsorial, Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18
The psalmist uses the image of the river ordeal, known from Middle Eastern literature as a judicial punishment: if the person accused of wrongdoing survives being cast into the river, he proves his innocence.

Second Reading, Hebrews 12:1-4
The inspired writer employs the athletic metaphor of a race, encouraging his readers to develop endurance, motivated by the perfected and exalted model of Christ.

Gospel, Luke 12:49-53
The effect of the mission of Jesus is not the sort of peace by which domestic tranquility is undisturbed, since each person must decide whether this prophet’s message is to be accepted, or rejected, and division can naturally result. No one is left indifferent towards God’s definitive messenger.

Notes and commentary by Fr. Bob Mosher, a member of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban.