CATCHING UP

      They talk of the "hazy, lazy days of summer", and that is never truer than when you are in retirement - at least for me.  A month and a half have gone by since my last post, and while there have been thoughts and events that have come to mind, I have failed to put them in written form.  Let me give it a try again, with apologies.

     This past Sunday, the 20th of Summer Ordinary Time, we hear a reading from the Gospel of Luke, the 12th chapter.  In verse 49 Jesus says: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!"

     He goes on to say that he has come to shake up the complacent ... to challenge the status quo ... to call forth a passion within the hearts of people - a passion for God and a passion for the things of heaven - a passion that will transform lives.

     Fire is the key word here.  What does fire do?

     Fire destroys ... it can devastate a landscape, wipe out communities, bring death and destruction. ... as evidenced in the wildfires out West.  It is often seen as a punishment: the fire called down upon Sodom and Gomorrah or our describing hell in terms of punishing fire.

     Fire also purifies, taking the impurities from something - we see this in the refining fires of a forge or oven or blast furnace or kiln.

     Does Jesus not show us that the refining fire of his love will purify the heart of the repentant sinner and make them strong and worthy of his abiding grace?   That it will take away all division, hatred, hostility and selfishness.

     When the fire of his love stirs the pot, stirs our hearts so that that which is unworthy of God finds no place within us, then we will find the ability to live, to share his life with others, to create a kingdom that will last forever.

     There is a third kind of "fire", one that I believe Jesus is referring to here.  It is the fire of "PASSION" ... the fire that excites the heart and moves us to action.  It was seen in the "tongues of fire" at Pentecost that stirred the Apostles to leave the upper room and go first into the city and then to the ends of the earth proclaiming the Good News.  It is the "fire" burning within the hearts of the Emmaus travelers as they walk with him and broke bread.

     Ask for the fire of his passionate love in your heart, that we may together bear witness to his love.