20th Sunday of OT, year ’C
“Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather , division. There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!”
Jesus envisages his Mission using an image of fire.
John the Baptist had announced it : ’He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.’
At Pentecost, the Risen Lord Jesus sends tongues of fire upon his disciples gathered together. And this is how they began to speak different languages.
The blaze Jesus speaks about in the world is the fire of the Holy Spirit that gaining more and more ground , purifying and blazing everything in its wake, lighting up the whole of humanity. Jesus is going to be plunged in his baptism, be immersed in suffering, He can feel his Passion coming, He knows that the great waters of death are going to swallow him up, He, the Righteous One. And this so that the human race may be purified.
Jesus urges this baptism to be accomplished because plunging into his Love will enable Him to accomplish the work of the Father. The death of the Son of God will give life to all of mankind, and through His death, He will pass to the Glory of the Father.
The Word of God has us walk in Light whatever might be the difficulties we encounter. For the civilisation of Love to be built, there will necessarily be a combat going on as we g about our activities. Every day we have a spiritual combat to cope with ; our desire is to walk always in the Light!
Jesus who took flesh of the Virgin Mary, in order to pacify our human condition, reveals in this way the Way of Peace that comes from Him, for this is his great desire.
In following Him we have His Love shine forth through us in every circumstance. It is the desire of the Holy Spirit that Christian communities
shine brightly with His Light and thus be luminous. We are born also by this desire of ours which lies in Jesus’ desire as He carries us along.
“For from now on, a household of five will be divided : three against two and two against three; father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.”
Jesus moves from the image of fire to the image of water in a way that is paradox. In his Passion of Love, he carried all the ordeals of the human family! He opened up a path before us. This baptism in death for the Salvation of the world was familiar to him : when James and John ask for the two places of honour in his Kingdom, Jesus will ask them : ’Can you drink the cup I shall drink or be baptised in the baptism I shall be baptised?’
Jesus is well aware that in order to light the fire of the Holy Spirit upon the earth He will have to go through the baptism of suffering.
We, his witnesses, will also have our own share of ordeals. We shall give our life for Jesus’ cause, we shall have to bear witness to him at the heart of our own family. To follow Jesus in his way of Love makes up the joy of our daily life. The separation line of light and darkness passes within us all.
“I have come to bring fire upon earth and how I wish it were already blazing!”
Jesus proclaimed : ’Blessed are the peacemakers. He is the One who appeared so as to "guide our feet on he way of peace’.
He is ’our Peace’ and tells us that fidelity to his Gospel will lead his disciples to be misunderstood and rejected, at times by those who are closest to him.
The Word of Jesus dwelling in our hearts will lead us to make choices for our conversion going against certain tendencies we have for a comfortable life and going against what the group we belong to thinks.
Jesu committed himself to go to the Cross for the Salvation of the world and so this baptised people ought to respond with courage to bear witness to Him in family life.
It would be a lovely victory to bring Jesus’ peace to a family which has been divided , even amongst sisters who have to learn to once again trust one another.
What suffering for Jesus having to wait for this baptism , which first and foremost expresses his Passion and Resurrection, be accomplished in us. We can understand this anguish and pain fir we must consent ot his Salvation brought by Jesus. We are in aguish, faced with darkness within before we take the way of Peace. Our desire is to place ourselves at the school of Jesus, waiting for God to give us patience in this dark night. We have the experience how a fire of love dwells in our life and this draws us to God : ’Come to the Father’.