Fr. JC Maximilian

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!  There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father,  a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

With all the wild fires burning in California, some might be tempted to think that today’s Gospel reading is coming to fulfillment.  After all, it was in California that one of the world’s leading genetic researchers recently announced that he had created a new life form.  It was in California that the so-called “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” seems to be given unrestrained liberty to mock the Catholic Church.  It was in California that the governor signed a law that would make the mention of “husband” and “wife” illegal in public schools because those terms could be seen as anti-homosexual.

It is very tempting to say that the fires in California is nothing but Divine retribution for the arrogant mocking of Divine Law.  I am certainly not going to presume to know the mind of God, and I do think that God sometimes uses chastisement as a means for “waking us up” so that we can see our need for repentance.

I do think that today’s Gospel reading has a particular relevance to the tragic events in California, . . . but not in the way we may be tempted to say.  Why is it that California, and to be honest our society in general, seem to be not only non-Christian but anti-Christian?  Because Christians have not lived out their baptismal commitments.  The fire that Jesus speaks about casting on the earth is the fire of the Holy Spirit which should inflame the hearts of Christians with a passion to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the ends of the earth.  As Christians we must be people of fire.

Too many Christians want to keep their faith in nice, neat little boxes.  We pray only at certain times, we go to church for an hour on Sunday, but then we really do not think that our Christian faith should have much of a role in the rest of our lives.  Politicians who say things like, “I am personally opposed to (fill in the blank, e.g. abortion, capital punishment, etc.), but cannot impose my personal beliefs/faith on others,” make me sick.  We are not talking about IMPOSING, which would involve some use of force to make another person do something against their will, but rather WITNESSING to the Faith.

Our Christian Faith must transform everything in our lives.  That is the fire, the passion that we must have to truly be called Christians.  So, where are all the Christians?  Where is their witnessing to the Faith, to the Gospel?

I believe it was the Lutheran minister, Deitrich Bonnhofer, who said, “The only thing that must happen for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”  The evil that we see in our society is because most Christians are not burning with the passion of the Gospel.  They are not witnessing to the Faith.  They have not allowed their encounter with Christ Jesus to transform them into a new creation.

We must all stoke up the fire of our faith and set the world aflame with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

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