XX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Luke 12:49-53
Jesus’ words in this Sunday’s gospel sound a bit cryptic and we may ask ourselves what Jesus wanted to say. “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!” These words may give us the idea that Jesus was an arsonist and that he was intent on committing a crime; but how could he set fire to the whole world? To guess the possible meaning of Jesus’ words, we must go through the Scriptures and find out what fire stands for.
Fire can be a reference to a manifestation of God’s presence, glory and holiness, like the “flame of fire” (Ex 3:2), the “pillar of fire” (Ex 13:22) and on Mount Sinai, where “the Lord had descended on it in fire” (Ex 19:18). The book of Deuteronomy speaks of God as a “consuming fire”, referring to his jealousy (Dt 4:24) or referring to God as a “consuming fire” that destroys the enemies and protects the people of Israel (Dt 9:3). The fire may also refer to God’s anger that will bring punishment on those who oppose him:
“For a fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
“‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
I will spend my arrows on them” (Dt 32:22-23).
“I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.” (Jr 15:14).
The fire refers also to a purifying fire that burns down selfishness, pride, hatred, injustice, exploitation and oppression, that is the slavery of sin so that a new world may come about and a new order may be established and the Kingdom of God may set in.
Fire is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of love and the spark of wisdom. The Apostles experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit as “tongues of fire”, which “appeared to them and rested on each one of them” (Act 2:3). And that was the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise that would receive the power of the Holy Spirit so that they would the courage to preach the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ. So the words of Jesus about the fire that he brings refers mainly to the coming of the Kingdom of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit, which will enable his disciples to become the yeast that will transform the world from within.
The baptism that Jesus must receive is his passion and his death on the cross and through that baptism, he will purify the world and recreate it anew.
Then, Jesus speaks about peace and division, clearly stating that he does not bring peace but division. Nowadays, some people do violence to others in the name of God. And this leads others to blame all religions, accusing them of being the ideological foundation for violence. And they dare to accuse Jesus of being a promoter of violence since he said that he did not bring peace but division. Such a conclusion shows a big misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Jesus’ words. Jesus is telling us that before Him we must choose: either we accept his way of life or we reject it. And people will be divided between those who accept him and those who reject him. His disciples must prepare themselves to be rejected and to suffer violence because they accepted Christ and chose to live by his words. It may happen that even their relatives will become their enemies. The disciples of Jesus will suffer because of their faith, and in no way are they instructed to inflict suffering on those who reject Jesus Christ. Going through the way of the cross and making the experience of the calvary with Jesus, we will climb to the mountain of God’s glory. Sharing in Jesus’ death, we will share as well in his resurrection.
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