From: Luke 12:49-53
Jesus the Cause of Dissension
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
49-50. In the Bible, fire is often used to describe God’s burning love for men. This
divine love finds its highest expression in the Son of God become man: “God so
loved the world that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16). Jesus voluntarily gave up
His life out of love for us, and “greater love has no man than this, that a man lays
down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
In these words reported by St. Luke, Jesus Christ reveals His abounding desire
to give His life for love of us. He calls His death a baptism, because from it He
will arise victorious never to die again. Our Baptism is a submersion in Christ’s
death, in which we die to sin and are reborn to the new life of grace: “We were
buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”
(Romans 6:4).
Through this new life, we Christians should become set on fire in the same way
as Jesus set His disciples on fire: “With the amazing naturalness of the things
of God, the contemplative soul is filled with apostolic zeal. ‘My heart became hot
within me, a fire blazed forth from my thoughts’ (Psalm 38:4). What could this fire
be if not the fire that Christ talks about: ‘I came to cast fire upon the earth, and
would that it were already kindled’ (Luke 12:49). An apostolic fire that acquires
its strength in prayer: there is no better way than this to carry on, throughout the
whole world, the battle of peace to which every Christian is called to fill up what
is lacking in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Colossians 1:24)” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ
Is Passing By”, 120).
51-53. God has come into the world with a message of peace (cf. Luke 2:14) and
reconciliation (cf. Romans 5:11). By resisting, through sin, the redeeming work of
Christ, we become His opponents. Injustice and error lead to division and war. “In-
sofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue
until the coming of Christ; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming toge-
ther in charity, violence itself will be vanquished” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”,
78).
During His own life on earth, Christ was a sign of contradiction (cf. Luke 2:34).
Our Lord is forewarning His disciples about the contention and division which will
accompany the spread of the Gospel (cf. Luke 6:20-23; Matthew 10:24).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
First reading | Ephesians 3:14-21 © |
---|
Psalm | Psalm 32:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19 © |
---|
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
---|
Or | Ph3:8-9 |
---|
Gospel | Luke 12:49-53 © |
---|