Listening to the voice of Christ

20^th Sunday of Ordinary Time year C:

Jesus says in the gospel today: I have come to set fire upon the earth.  This reminds me of something that I think is quite important.  Jesus is real.  What do I mean?  I think that since Jesus is the most famous and most important person in the history of the world, he can be easy to misunderstand.  It can be easy to make Jesus one-dimensional.  It can be easy to focus on one aspect of his life or one aspect of his teaching.  Yet, Jesus is real.  He’s complex.  We have to take in the whole message, the whole story, from all 4 gospels.  Doing this provides us with many more resources for whatever we need in our lives at a particular time.

Feeling lost: turn to the story of the prodigal son.  Know that the Father is there with his love and mercy.  Know that Christ loves you and wants to forgive you.  Feelings sinful: turn to the story of the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus says: neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.  Feeling complacent and think you have no problems: turn to the story where Jesus says why do you notice the speck in your neighbor’s eye while you do not recognize the beam in your own.

I think you get the point.  It can be so easy to get stuck on just one aspect of Jesus’ life, ministry, and teaching that we lose out on so much guidance that we need in our lives.

For example, I don’t think that many of us instinctively turn to today’s gospel.  I’ll speak for myself, it’s not the most encouraging and comforting of news.  I came to cast fire.  From now on all families will be divided.  But, this, too is a message that we need to hear. 

First, Jesus predicts that he will end up causing division.  I think we all know that this is true right?  Any easier way to make people uncomfortable than by injecting in a normal conversation: hey by the way, do you want to talk about Jesus?  What do they say, don’t talk about religion or politics?  Even in our own families, not many of us can say that we are all united on our faith in Christ, right?  Jesus is controversial in that way.  This does not mean that we should go out of our way to cause division.  Rather, we should take heart that division will naturally occur.  We want to help people to come to know Christ, but faith is ultimately a mystery.  So, this passage can really help us if we are feeling discouraged because of divisions in our friends and family based on religion.  Jesus told us it would happen.  So, take heart and renew your prayer and good example asking the Lord to help your family members grow in their faith.

Second, the fire.  This image is striking.  I love fire.  Not that I like setting things on fire.  But, one of my favorite things to do is to sit outside by a fire.  I find the flames mesmerizing.  Yet, the flames are also scary.  They can burn.  Jesus wants to cast fire on the earth.  This is a special kind of fire because it lives inside of us.  It’s important to remember that we use fire to represent the Holy Spirit.  The fire of God’s love active in the hearts and lives of Christians.  Yet, this fire can burn sometimes.  It might be scary.  It’s not easy to follow Christ.  As our second reading states, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.  It’s tough following Christ.  It’s hard to be purified from our sin and from our selfishness.  Sometimes it hurts to be cast into the fire of his love.  And yet, living in the fire of Christ is an amazing place to be.  It makes us truly alive.  It’s the kind of life we all want to have.  A life filled with love and joy and peace and the goodness of God.  So, we have to lean into that fire.  Don’t turn away from it.

In this week’s Message in a Minute, I recommended to everyone that a good way to enter into the purifying fire of Christ’s love is to make it to confession.  Confession might seem a bit scary sometimes.  It might feel like fire.  But, it burns away the sin from our lives.  Especially if it’s been a while since you’ve been to confession, let the fire of Christ’s love burn in your lives to help you on the way to holiness.

So, this gospel passage might seem off-putting at first.  It seems edgy and controversial.  We might not like that.  But, it’s a good reminder that Jesus is complex.  We need the whole message.  Maybe today, you and I need to hear this particular message for an important reason.  Maybe we need to hear it because we are dealing with divisions in our family.  Jesus predicted this would happen.  So, let’s be at peace and still try to encourage the unity of faith in Christ.  Maybe we need to hear this passage today because we are afraid of the fire of Christ’s love.  Let him cast that flame in your life.  Let it be something that excites and motivates us, more than frightens us. 

One thing I love about being Catholic is the fact that we read the whole Bible.  We don’t just pick and choose the parts we like.  Rather, we need the real, dynamic, concrete, and complex Jesus Christ in our lives.  Let us listen to his voice as he speaks to us today.