I HAVE COME TO BRING FIRE

October 21, Thursday

TWENTY-NINETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      Christ has set us free for the kingdom and the life and love of God. It is a liberty that is no longer license, a liberty that reshapes us in Christ and opens us to service of God and people. It is all a gift from God.

      Today our Lord confronts us with the question: How fiery is your love and your faith? Can our faith accept contradiction and ridicule without letting us be reduced to silence? Perhaps we are resigned to the evil in us and in the world and fail to stand up for what is right and good. If our love for the Lord and people is strong enough, we do not tolerate an easy peace that puts our conscience to sleep. Let the fire of the Spirit burn in us.

 

First Reading: Romans 6:19-23

I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?

As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.

 

Gospel: Luke 12:49-53

“I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be—

Three against two,
    and two against three;
Father against son,
    and son against father;
Mother against daughter,
    and daughter against mother;
Mother-in-law against bride,
    and bride against mother-in-law.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
you have set us free in Christ,
free from our selfishness,
free from shame and fear,
free for life and service.
God, accept our thanks for this free gift.
Give us the strength, day after day,
to grow in this liberty
and to help our little or large world
to attain the same freedom
from sin and its consequences:
from injustice, suffering, and oppression.
One day may we be completely free
in your eternal home,
through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

To set the world on fire!

“I have come to bring fire upon the Earth, and how I wish it were already blazing! The fire that Jesus speaks of is the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire that is burning in us from the day of our Baptism. This fire is a creative force that purifies and renews, that burns all human misery, all selfishness, all sin, which transforms us from within, regenerates us and makes us able to love. Jesus reveals to his friends, and to us, his most ardent desire: to enkindle the fire of His Father’s love on earth. And he calls us to spread this fire around the world.

Jesus wants the fire of the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts. If we open ourselves completely to the action of the Holy Spirit, He will give us the boldness and the fervour, to proclaim to everyone Jesus and his consoling message of mercy and salvation. It is precisely the fire of the Holy Spirit that leads us to be neighbours to others, to the needy, to so much human misery, to so many problems, to refugees, to displaced people, to those who are suffering.

Pope Francis explains today’s passage and says, “the Church does not need bureaucrats and diligent officials, but passionate missionaries, consumed by the fire of love, to bring to everyone the consoling words of Jesus and his grace. This is the fire of the Holy Spirit. If the Church does not receive this fire, or does not let it inflame her, she becomes a cold or merely lukewarm Church, incapable of giving life, because she is made up of cold and lukewarm Christians.

The pope goes on to give some tips for evaluation of our situation: It is important that today we take five minutes to ask ourselves: “How is my heart? Is it cold? Is it lukewarm? Is it capable of receiving this fire?”. Let us take five minutes for this. It will do everyone good.

“Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth? No, I say to you, division “(Lk 12.51), says the Lord. The passage is indeed confusing! He came to “separate us with fire,” separate good from evil, and right from wrong. It is a call not to live as hypocrites any longer, but to be in conformity with the Gospel and be consistent with that choice. Because it is good to say that we are Christians, but above all we need to be Christians in concrete situations, witnessing to the Gospel which is essentially love for God and for our brothers and sisters.

 

Video available on Youtube: To set the world on fire!