When we read today’s Gospel, it can seem like Jesus isn’t in the nicest of moods. He declares that He came to set fire to the earth and follows that up with “how I wish it were already blazing!” The words he uses indicate a passion, a desire, an urge to be plunged into this baptism that will bring about this fire. He longs and desires for His mission to be finished, for the cross and His death to be complete, to bring about the resurrection. St. Jerome says that the fire here is the fire of Judgement. A fire that purifies and separates those who are meant for the kingdom. Our catechism tells us that this fire is also a symbol of God’s presence and the Divine Purification process.
Jesus yearns that we can experience this. This fire. The fire of Pentecost. The fire of the Holy Spirit comes down to enlighten our hearts and minds. The Holy Spirit guides us through this process of purification, cleansing us if we allow Him to, to help us get rid of anything that stands in the way of our unity with God. Unity is our primary focus, even if it causes us to be ostracized or excluded from the world. Our covenant with God, our relationship with Him, the one we celebrate at the altar by receiving the Eucharist, is even more important than the most intimate of bonds, even the bonds of family.
So what can we learn from that? What is our takeaway today from this statement of Jesus about division and fire? Jesus tells us that our mission is not to bring peace at any cost. Our mission is to follow the truth of who He is. Our goal is to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, to allow the fire of God’s love to animate every action and thought of our lives. Our aim is to be on fire! His heart yearned for this, to the point of anguish at the restraint of having to wait for this to be accomplished. We get this glimpse into Jesus’ humanity, to the all-consuming desire of His to send the Holy Spirit to unite us with God that we might share His divine life, that we might be with God in Heaven for eternity.
Do you yearn for Him? Do you long for that gift of eternal life? Are our hearts and minds consumed with the overwhelming love of God? Let us ask Him today to set us on fire! To animate our hearts and minds with the fire of the Holy Spirit so that we may have the gift of seeing the fire of God’s love, the fire of His Presence in our lives, in our hearts, and right there in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
A reflection on the readings for Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time: 10/21/2021