Setting the Earth on Fire!

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Eph 3:14-21; Lk 12:49-53

Today’s Gospel highlights the power of the Gospel message. 

In my view, Jesus’ statement regarding setting the earth on fire amounts to what we today know as ‘creative tension,’ which means that a situation where disagreement or discord ultimately gives rise to better ideas or outcomes. 

The radicality of the Gospel message is so incisive that our loyalty to Jesus can only result from a process of tension and conflict.

It is hard to side with Jesus unless we leave behind things and people, just as he himself showed through his itinerant life. 

The falsehood of the world could not bear the truth of Jesus’ Gospel. This is why Jesus was a ‘sign opposed by many’ (Lk 2:34) as predicted by Simon. 

This is the Gospel that St. Oscar Romero preached in El Salvador. He said, ‘That is what the church wants: to disturb people’s consciences and to provoke a crisis in their lives. A church that does not provoke crisis, a gospel that does not disturb, a word of God that does not rankle, a word of God that does not touch the concrete sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what kind of gospel is that?’

The Gospel is friendly, provided the receiver is truthful. Jesus’ Gospel does not shake hands with falsehood. 

Being loyal to Jesus then is to be loyal to the truth of his Gospel. 

We can set the earth on fire if we let ourselves be cleansed by the Gospel fire. 

Let us pray for the grace to be faithful to the Gospel of Christ so that it may set the earth on fire through us. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar