20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 14th August, 2016
Jer 38: 4-6, 8-10; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12:49-53
I came to set fire... and how I wish it is ablaze already!
That yearning of Christ has always been satisfied through the century with a spirit of proclamation, sense of perseverance and the passion of prophecy manifested by persons of God.
Jeremiah was called to proclaim what the Lord wanted, and he was taken to task by the truth-haters! Could he modify, manipulate and meddle with the Word of God? Absolutely no! He had to proclaim and he did it, to the extent of going upto the brink of death. the Word was like fire burning in his bones (Jer 21:9). He just could not shut up.
The world will try ceaselessly to tame you, threaten you and domesticate you. Are you going to give up? How early or how far? The letter to the Hebrew says, upto death! There were people who did that. The saint whom we remember on this day...Maxmillian Maria Kolbe is a typical example of that. Why should he die for someone whom he did not even know? He decided to give up his life because that flame was afire in him. He just could not contain it.
Peace and Prophecy...do they go together? That is the question Jesus sets to answer. If we are talking about true peace, prophecy is for peace! If we are speaking of a peace that is filled with compromises, siding with exploitation, promoting insensitivities of any kind, then peace and prophecy are diametrically opposed! What peace are we thinking of? Prophecy here would mean - protest, challenge, change -in short, standing up for the Truth! Speaking up, Rising up, Teaming up against injustice and corruption today, is Christian Prophecy. Are we ready for it? Jesus was doing it, because for him Kingdom meant everything. He was filled with a passion for the Kingdom and he just could not silence it.
Living the Kingdom Fire today, is to have the fire, keep it burning and be consumed by that passion for the Kingdom, wherever we are. Are we afire?