I have not come to bring peace, but division
9. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword; for I have come to separate a man from his father, a daughter from her mother and a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law; and a man will have as enemies those of his own house. (Mt. 10:34-36)
10. I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire except that it be lit? I must be baptized with a baptism, and how I am in a hurry for it to be accomplished!
Do you believe that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I assure you, but on the contrary, division; for from now on if there are five persons in a home, they will be divided against one another: three against two and two against three. The father will be divided from his son and the son from his father; the mother from her daughter and the daughter from her mother; the mother-in-law from her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law. (Lk. 12:49-53)
11. Was it Jesus, the personification of tenderness and goodness, Jesus, who never ceased proclaiming love for one’s neighbor, who could say, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword; I have come to separate son from father, husband from wife; I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire except that it be lit?” Are not such words in flagrant contradiction with his teaching? Is there not blasphemy in attributing to him the language of a bloody and ruinous conqueror? No, there is neither blasphemy nor contradiction in these words, because it was he himself who spoke them and they bear witness to his great wisdom. It is solely the form, a bit ambiguous, that does not express his thought precisely, and this fact has given rise to misunderstandings as to their true meaning. Taken literally, they would tend to transform his wholly peaceful mission into a mission of subversion and discord – an absurd conclusion rejected by common sense, for Jesus would not have contradicted himself.
12. Every new idea encounters strong opposition and there is not one that has not been implemented without struggle. Resistance in such cases is always in proportion to the importance of the results foreseen, for the greater the idea, the more numerous the interests it will ruffle. If it is notoriously erroneous, if it is deemed inconsequential, no one will be concerned with it and will allow it to pass, knowing it has no viability. However, if it is true, if it sits on a solid base, if a future is foreseen for it, a secret presentiment warns its antagonists that it is a danger to them and to the order of things in whose maintenance they are interested. That is why they throw themselves against it and its adherents.
The measure of the importance and results of a new idea, therefore, may be found in the excitement that its appearance causes, the violence of opposition it provokes and the degree and persistence of the anger of its adversaries.
13. Jesus came to proclaim a doctrine that would undermine the very base of the abuses upon which the Pharisees, scribes and priests of his time were living, so they killed him, believing they could kill the idea by killing the man. But the idea survived because it was true; it grew because it was in the designs of God, and upon leaving an obscure village in Judea, it planted its banner in the very capital of the pagan world in the face of its most obstinate enemies, those who had the most interest in combating it because it subverted the secular beliefs they held onto more out of self- interest than conviction. The most dreadful struggles awaited its apostles there; the victims were innumerable, but the idea grew everyday and emerged triumphant, because, as the truth, it rose above its predecessors.