17 August 2025 -- 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Jer 38:4-10; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12:49-57
H O M I L Y
‘I have come to bring fire to the earth...’ You will agree with me that this is not an easy Gospel text. It is a rather hard nut to crack, but once you break the shell, you find a very tasty kernel inside.
In ancient times, in all primitive religions, fire was considered something sacred. For primitive peoples, there was a gulf, a radical separation, between what was considered the domain of the gods and the space inhabited by humans; between the sacred and the profane. Fire, which is so mysterious, which warms and nourishes life, but which can also destroy, was considered divine. This is why in ancient mythology, for example in the Greek myth of Prometheus, a turning point in human history was reached when Prometheus, one of the Titans, stole the secret of fire from the gods and gave it to humans.
We can keep this in mind when we read Jesus' words: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth...’ He came indeed to remove the divide between God and humans. This was already the teaching of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, and the account of creation found therein. In the Jewish and Christian traditions, unlike in pagan religions, God entrusted the whole of creation to humans and made them its guardians. Therefore, nothing is sacred by nature. Everything is profane. All of creation is at the disposal of man. But everything can become sacred if it is used to glorify God.
Jesus came precisely to bridge the gap between God and humans; he also came to bridge the gap between humans. In the ancient tradition of Israel, as found in the Old Testament – as, indeed, in the traditions of other ancient peoples – family ties were of extreme importance. A person owed everything to his or her family, and these family ties extended to the concentric circles of the extended family, the clan, the tribe, and the nation.
Outside these circles, there were only enemies. In a context of almost continuous warfare, a person had to love his own and hate all others. It was a condition of survival. Jesus wanted to bridge this gap as well. He had come to bring salvation to all men and women.
He loved everyone and wanted everyone to extend their capacity to love beyond the limits of their family and loved ones. For Jesus, family ties remain important, but they must be subordinated to something even higher: the love of God and his call to universal love. Nothing can stand in the way of such a commitment. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out... If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off... Jesus himself showed more than once that he did not want to be imprisoned by the ties that bound him to his own.
‘I give you peace; I give you my peace...’ The peace brought by Jesus is not simply the absence of conflict, and even less a romantic form of tranquillity. Conflicts are inevitable between human beings. If they are always avoided, the peace that results is not the peace that Jesus came to bring. If they are well managed, as Peter and Paul did at the first Council of Jerusalem, and as the first Christian martyrs did in their own way, then the peace of Christ is established on our earth. This is true of the Church, of a family, of a community. There are human groups, communities, where everyone is always smiling, where there are never any conflicts, because any issue that could be a source of conflict is always carefully avoided. It is then a situation similar to that of some --at times very complex -- motorway junctions: the risk of accidents is limited, but there are no longer any encounters. Everyone goes straight ahead, ignoring the others.
Jesus came to bring fire to the earth. A Christian community, whether it be the universal Church, a diocesan church, a monastic community or a family, is a place where there must be fire, sometimes even fireworks. For fire brings life and purifies. Let us ask God for each of us the grace to be faithful to our call to the Gospel, faithful to our principles, faithful to the Kingdom of God, and able to subordinate everything else to this faithfulness. It is in a radical and honest commitment such as this that the source of all ultimate peace is to be found.
Armand VEILLEUX