342. Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

Meditations no. 598 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Jesus Christ has come to kindle the fire of his Love in the world.

THERE ARE passages of the Gospel in which it seems that Jesus cannot contain within himself his infinite divine reality; and, at the same time, he cannot show it openly, because men would not understand him, and would even exclaim-as indeed happened once-that he is out of his mind.

One of these moments is recorded in today’s Gospel: I have come to bring fire to earth, says the Lord: and what do I want but that it should burn? I have to be baptized with a baptism, and how anxious I am until it takes place!

What is this fire and baptism of which the Lord speaks? “It is often the divinely inspired Scripture that calls ‘fire’ the divine and sacred words, and the efficacy and power that come from the Holy Spirit, through Whom the fervor of spirit is communicated to us.” Baptism, on the other hand, has to do with the passion, since more than once Jesus spoke of his death as a baptism. For example, in response to the request that James and John address to him to occupy positions of privilege in his kingdom, the Lord answers: can you drink the cup that I drink, or receive the baptism with which I am going to be baptized? St. Cyril comments that “with this baptism, the Lord refers to his death in the flesh. And the fact that he is distressed means that he was grieved and worried until he saw it accomplished.” Baptism because the Lord, on the Cross, was completely immersed in the water of tribulation; and because from the Cross the fountain of purification was to flow to wash away the sins of the world.

The allusion to fire can also be related to the Cross, if we keep in mind those other words of Jesus: when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. Fire, in this case, is God’s love for men, which is evident in the wood: the amazing revelation of God’s love for sinners, the Cross as the new burning bush.

This cry of the Lord deeply wounded our Father’s soul from a very early age, as soon as he began to feel the hints of his vocation. He recalled it, for example, at the end of his life, during his catechesis in America. Before knowing what the Lord wanted from me-but knowing that he wanted something-I often expanded my heart and cried out that ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur? (Lk 12:49). And he answered, also singing: ecce ego quia vocasti me! (1 Sam 3:5ff). My brother, who was very young at the time (…), learned those words without knowing what they meant, and from time to time (…) he would come and sing them, very badly sung!, by my side. I had to throw him out: go, go! But it gave me great joy to hear them, because for me they were an incentive: let them be so for you also; may you never be extinguished; may you know that you are bearers of divine fire, of divine light, of the warmth of heaven, of love of God, in all the environments of the earth. And this is at odds with the betrayals that, from time to time, we make to the Lord: small, in love, but betrayals, after all.

My children, from today’s conversation we have to draw the firm, very firm resolution, to be more faithful and more loyal every day; to live more and more in love every day.

We must open ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit and reject what is opposed to him.

THE IMAGES of fire and baptism, which we have just considered, also refer to Pentecost. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire, proclaimed St. John the Baptist speaking of Jesus. The Evangelist who quotes these words, St. Luke, presents in the Acts of the Apostles the events of Pentecost as the first and solemn baptism of the whole Church, which did not take place by water, but precisely by means of fire.

Jesus, with his eagerness to “set fire” and “pass through a baptism”, expresses his longing for the Will of God the Father to be fulfilled. He is already thinking of Pentecost, of the manifestation and spread of the Church throughout the world after Easter: his gaze embraces both mysteries, because in fact they are inseparable. How many times will he say that he must leave this world, so that the Paraclete can come upon his disciples! The Holy Spirit will come as a result of the glorification of Jesus, that is, as the fruit of his Passion and Death.

That love of God also now purifies us. Fire of God: to burn, to give light, to embrace. But fire, children of my soul, if it melts the bronze, hardens the clay. And a heart in which there is too much clay, a heart that preserves things that do not go, if it does not have the good will to remove them, hardens in contact with the divine fire.

To imitate our Father in these great desires, we must say yes to Love many times; an affirmative answer that He Himself asks of us through so many small daily events. Also for Love we must say no at other times: to the tendency to withdraw into ourselves, disregarding others; to the images and seductions that seek to invade our senses and shackle our imagination; to the body that asks for more comforts than necessary, more comfort and less sacrifice; to the desire to leave work before the hour. … The motions that the Holy Spirit whispers in our ears are constant, so that we may respond to the infinite Love of Jesus.

If we let ourselves be carried away by the Paraclete, He will purify our hearts and we will also be able to say: I have come to bring fire to earth! The fire of love that will spread to many other souls.

Let us meditate on that point of the Forge: You wrote: “I hear you cry out, my King, with a loud voice, which still vibrates: ‘ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur?’” “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and what do I want, but that it should burn?”

Then you added: “Lord, I answer you - all of me - with my senses and powers: ‘ecce ego: quia vocasti me!’ - here I am because you have called me!”

“Let this answer of yours be a daily reality.

Our apostolate must be constant and vibrant: we are instruments of divine Love.

THE ardent desire for Jesus is still alive in him, and it aspires to be kindled again and again in the life of every Christian. In fact, it ignited in our souls when we were baptized, because that fire is identified with the Holy Spirit who, together with the Father and the Son, has dwelt in us ever since. But we know that a fire can be intense and devouring, or weaken until it is covered with a layer of ashes, with hardly any heat; and it can even go out.

“It is good, then, that love that takes wings like a burning fire, that takes flight in the breasts and hearts of the saints, burning in them all that is material and earthly, while it puts to the test what is pure and improves with its fire everything that it touches. This fire brought the Lord Jesus to earth: since then faith has shone, devotion has been kindled, charity has been illuminated, and justice has shone. With this fire he has inflamed the hearts of his apostles.”

We Christians must keep that fire of divine Love well lit. No one who has known us must remain indifferent; our charity must be a living light that turns those we deal with into ignition points, into other sources of love and apostolate. The Holy Spirit will blow through us into many who seemed extinguished, and from their embers of Christian life flames will emerge that will spread to other souls. “Life is like a journey through the sea of history,” writes Pope Benedict XVI, “often dark and stormy, a journey in which we scrutinize the stars that show us the route. The true stars of our lives are the people who have known how to live uprightly. These people are lights of hope. Jesus Christ is certainly the light par excellence, the sun that shines on all the darkness of history. But to reach Him we also need lights that are close, people who give light by reflecting the light of Christ, thus offering guidance for our journey.”

Our Father is for his children and for many people a close light of hope. And we must be so for others, because true love for God is immediately manifested in the apostolate, in the desire that others may know and love Jesus Christ.

My children, that ignem veni mittere in terram! (Lk 12:49), I have come to earth to set it on fire, it must burn our souls. And we must be determined, absolutely resolute, to say to the Lord: ecce ego quia vocasti me! (1 Sam 3:5), here I am, because you have called me to be a Christian. Father of a family? Father of a family. Son of a family? Son of a family. Mother of a family? Mother of a family. But setting fire to everything you touch. If you do not set fire to what is around you, you will burn yourselves foolishly, leaving only a few ashes, instead of an ember of light and warmth.

In prayer the apostolic zeal is nourished. Together with the tabernacle we will obtain light and strength; we will speak to Jesus of our children, of our parents, of our siblings, of our friends, of the person we have just met, of those we will meet that day for professional reasons or in the small incidents of daily life. None of them must leave empty; to all of them, in one way or another, with words, by example, by prayer, we must proclaim Christ who seeks them, who waits for them, and who uses us as instruments.

To conclude the prayer, let us listen to a confidence of our Father. My children, it gives me great joy to be close to you. We have come together, consummati in unum (Jn 17:23), forming one heart, to speak of God. For we priests know how to speak only of God, and you, like me, hunger for God.

Jesus Christ said twenty centuries ago: ignem veni mittere in terram. … !, I have come to bring fire to the earth, and what do I want but that it be kindled? (Lk 12:49). The earth is extinguished, the earth is dark. On earth, we men have not known how to take the fire of Christ, and carry it everywhere to light fires.

My children, I know that you, like me, understand that what I have just said is true; that it is necessary to stir, to get out of comfort, to make up earnestly to be Christians and to stick this fire of Christ to everyone.

Our Mother, we now say to Our Lady: may your love be cautery, purify our hearts, and fire that inflame us with the love of Jesus Christ.