20th Sunday Reflection: Birthing The Fire Of Love
Franciscan Reflections From The Hermitage – Birthing The Fire Of Love – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – (Luke 12:49-53)
PAST and FUTURE veil God from our sight; burn up both of them with fire. (Rumi)
Awareness, the tool lighting the fire;
awakening is the fire,
freedom the flame,
discernment the crucible birthing LOVE.
How unnatural is much of what we accept as normal? We can become so desensitised or disheartened by the banality of evil that it ceases to shock us; we accept it as usual… just the way it’s always been. Then suddenly, the smallest spark breaks through the mist, jolting us out of the sleep of lethargy and indifference.
In our passage, Jesus has come to that moment in his life and mission… deeply moved by the evil in the world, by the hypocrisy, the arrogance, the oppression, and corruption, he longs to see it going up in a great bonfire, while true goodness is gathered safely into God’s barn. Jesus has come to kindle that fire upon the earth, to refine what is impure so that Love can be born.
In moments of awareness, we see evil staring back at us from the abyss and we experience that same repugnance. As we hear the words with Jesus, we are called to reach toward that particular form of chaff that lies hidden and only half-remembered… hypocrisy, racism, manipulation, arrogance, and corruption; everything that stifles the birthing of Love, the birthing of God within.
We pray for families where there is discord. We are called to experience the continued pain and the frustration of that division. This is where we are called to be Christ in the world, not hiding the facts, nor abdicating our responsibility but being prophetic; always transforming evil without transmitting it. Only love, vulnerable Love has this power.
We are conscious of being part of a holy chain of witnesses that stretches back to the apostles and first disciples. In the struggle to be faithful, they turned to the examples of prophets, witnesses, and saints. We also draw hope and courage from those ‘heroes of the faith’, who remained faithful even though they did not see the promises of the Gospel fulfilled in their lifetimes.
When we experience weariness and a sense of failure and futility, they are saying to us, ‘We are with you. Don’t give up.’
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