Missionary Restlessness!

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Rom 6:19-23; Lk 12:49-53

Today’s Gospel highlights missionary restlessness in Jesus’ words. 

Jesus demonstrates a certain sense of urgency and immediacy in his words when he talks about setting the earth on holy fire, receiving the baptism of suffering, and causing the division, which we understand as an experience of conflict for the sake of fidelity to Christ.

Jesus declares his missionary restlessness in three ways. 

A Fire That Purifies: Jesus declares that he has come to set the earth on fire and exclaims, ‘How I wish it were already blazing!’ The kind of fire that Jesus refers to is not a consuming but a purifying fire, which will cleanse the humanity of sluggishness and mediocrity and turn people into missionaries of God. The people who have thus been purified will burn brightly with love and truth for the sake of humanity.

The Baptism of Suffering: By the word ‘baptism,’ Jesus refers to the immersion into passion and death on the cross. His words, ‘How great is my anguish until it is accomplished!’ highlight his genuine longing for it to happen. Here we must note that more than his desire to die, the words of Jesus reveal his thirst to fulfill the mission that his Father gave him. His fidelity to his Father makes Jesus restless. 

Fidelity to Christ and Division: When Jesus talks of division, he foretells the conflict in loyalty that his name will bring about. The Jesus Truth and the Gospel Truth will always demand our choice. Our loyalty to Christ will cut off other relationships from us. Hence, we must understand that the Gospel call is radical, and it demands total and complete allegiance with no place for indecision or confusion. 

Missionary restlessness would mean that we are driven by the passion for proclaiming the Gospel Truth, allowing no conflict to compromise the mission. 

Jesus became the definition and example of missionary restlessness. 

Let us pray that we may burn with such missionary restlessness to heal the world with the Gospel truth.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar