Posted on 08/16/2025 5:37:59 PM PDT by ebb tide
The Gospel Jesus speaks vividly of his own mission to engage our ancient foe and to gather God’s elect back from the enslaving clutches of Satan, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning (see John 8:44). He seeks to work in our life by the glorious fire of his Holy Spirit if we but let him. And yet, not all do want the Lord to work. Some prefer the darkness to the light of God’s truth. Some prefer sin to grace, and choose the world, not the Kingdom of Heaven. There must be a sorting out.
Jesus begins by saying, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”
The Lord has come to purify us, by the fiery power of His Holy Spirit. This image of fire is important, as fire must burn away sin and purify us. And indeed, the Lord sent forth his Spirit on the early Church as tongues of fire (Acts 2:3) so as to bring them up to the temperature of glory and to prepare them for the coming judgment of the world by fire.
The text says, “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”
Jesus does not sit in some comfortable headquarters behind the front lines — he goes to the hill of Calvary and leads us over the top to the Resurrection glory. He endures every blow, every hardship on our behalf. And through his wounds we are healed by being baptized into his very Body. As such we too have a share in his sufferings.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Ping
Exactly what St. Paul teaches in Galatians 6:14.
“You are free to choose, but you are not free not to choose”
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