Daily Reflection Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Ignatius of Loyola is said to have been very fond of this saying and, at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, there is a statue of him outside the chapel with this saying in Latin on its base. Jesuits being Jesuits, the last time I was there someone had placed a large red fire extinguisher right beside the statue!

         Let’s remember that in the Old Testament, fire is a symbol of God’s powerful presence. Think of Moses at the burning bush, the pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites by night as they wandered through the desert, as well as the tongues of fire that hovered over the disciples at Pentecost. It’s this Pentecostal fire that burns our hearts and draws us to change the direction of our lives

         Jesus expresses a longing for his baptism to be accomplished. He’s not talking about baptism in the River Jordan again, but to his immersion in the terrible suffering and death by which we are be saved. The baptism ritual where a new Christian is immersed in the baptismal pool is seen as a parallel to Jesus going into death and emerging into the new life of the Resurrection.

         Jesus says he has come not to bring peace but division on the earth. But isn’t Jesus the Prince of Peace? Didn’t he say at the Last Supper that he was giving his disciples peace, a peace that the world could not give and that no one could take away? Didn’t he say, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest?” Wasn’t his final greeting to his disciples in the upper room not “Peace be with you?”

         All true.  But he also warned his disciples that, after he was gone, they could expect terrible trials. They would be put before the authorities to be beaten, jailed and even put to death. In that sense, Jesus wasn’t going to bring peace. And, by the time Luke’s gospel was written, his warnings had been borne out and there was a lot more still to come.

         The break-up of families was common when one or more members in a family decided to follow Christ and be baptized. Even in more recent times, such as when I was in Japan, several people I knew were completely rejected by their families when they were baptized and later joined the Jesuits.

         Hostility and division, provided the Christian isn’t responsible for it, doesn’t take away the peace that Jesus spoke about. On the contrary, it is only by being true to our convictions and integrity, whatever the price that has to be paid, that we can experience peace.