I Have Come To Bring Fire

"I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  But I have a baptism to undergo, and what anguish I feel until it is finished!

Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  From now on, in one house five will be divided: three against two, and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." - Luke 12:49-53 

(I have come to bring fire.  Must we think of fire as referring to something precise such as love, the Gospel or the gift of the Holy Spirit?  It is better to stay with the image of fire that purifies, burns all that is old, gives warmth and fosters life; fire of the judgment of GOD destroying all that is not surrendered to its reforming action.

JESUS comes to remake the world and to bring the jewels that will remain for eternity out of the rubble.  Those who follow JESUS must participate in this work of salvation directed at a situation combining work, violence, suffering as well as great dreams wise or mad.

I have a baptism to undergo...  JESUS is the leader and will be the first one to face death as a means of obtaining resurrection.  This step, as 'agonizing' for JESUS as it is for us, is the baptism of fire [see Luke 3:16] that introduces us into a glorious and eternal life.  It is the true baptism of which the others, baptisms of water and Spirit, are only a preparation [Romans 6:3-5].

I have come to bring division.  This is followed by words of JESUS that are so upsetting for those who expect of HIM a peaceful life.  JESUS is a source of division among nations and social groups.  Often people have tried to use religion as cement for national unity or family peace.  It is true that faith is a factor in peace and understanding; but it also separates those who are truly alive from those others, be they relatives or friends, who cannot have all that is now the most important to these true believers.  Many times, the wound and the scandal of this separation are so painful for them, that they turn into our persecutors.

The Gospel does not put this world on the road to an earthly paradise, but it challenges it to grow.  The death of JESUS brings into full light what was hidden in hearts [Luke 2:35]; likewise it reveals the lies and the violence underlying our societies, just as it revealed those which underlay the Jewish society of HIS time.)

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