FIRE ON THE EARTH

The late, great theologian and scientist Teilhard de Chardin: “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man [ad woman] will have discovered fire.” He was, I think, reflecting on Jesus’ words in Luke: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (12:49)

Jesus came to set the world on fire. His desire was to see the world ablaze in love for one another and see in come to fruition in his lifetime. That did not happen as is quite evident in our world today. It did not happen because it took the taking of his own life, his death on the cross, to get the fire going. And then, to continue to use this image, that fire was only no larger than a campfire.

Again, sadly, the truth is today, two thousand years later, while that fire has grown much larger, it still has not consumed the world. It is blazing, yes, but surely not to the degree that Jesus desired when he spoke those words in that Gospel passage. Jesus was the spark that started the fire. It was up to those who followed him to get the fire going. They did their best; but over the centuries, it has not been good enough.

And so it is up to us today to keep the fire going. We do it in the same way Jesus began the fire, at that is in and through our own lives. We have to live and give of our lives for the fire to grow. No, we do not have to lay down our lives the way Jesus did, but we must be willing to do so were that sacrifice be demanded.

Yet, the further truth is the reason why the fire Jesus kindled is not the worldwide conflagration he envisioned is that we hold back from the giving of our total selves in the living out of our faith. Were we all to live our faith as fully as Jesus lived his, the world would indeed be consumed and ablaze with faith in Jesus and our love for our God, for our neighbor and for ourselves.

All this is a wonderful image, of course. But images are based on realities. And the reality is that we are called to live out our life of faith as best we can each moment of each day of our lives. When we do, we enkindle in others that same faith. Others get caught on fire because they get too close to us – or we to them, which is how Jesus did it in his life. A fire cannot burn in a vacuum. Faith is not lived in a vacuum. We live out our faith in and among other people. The closer we get to them, the more we love them, the more susceptible they are to catching what we have.

For faith is indeed catching. That’s how we got it, if you will. We caught it from others who caught it from others as others catch it from us. We caught on fire because others shared their faith with us. We stay on fire because of that same sharing of our faith with those who are also on fire, and the fire grows larger. That was and is Jesus’s image of how his Gospel message of love is shared, grows and consumes the world. We are all part of that message, that fire, that faith. As the old camp song says, “It only takes a spark” to start the fire and to keep it going. We are to be that spark.