Christ’s fire, Holy Spirit. Let’s light up our life with the flame of God’s love.

Fire. It helps a person, and we all use it. As the heat radiates, or to start a fire for roasting or to light a torch during a night game, fire can also make proper mischief, such as a fire. In today’s Gospel, we heard the Lord Jesus say: “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and what do I want?” Only for it to catch fire!” (Luke 12:49).

Jesus came to bring fire to earth that moves the ice of this world. In contrast, he mentions the baptism with which he will be baptized: fire and baptism. Fire can symbolize God’s word (cf. Jer 5:14), but also God’s definitive judgment (cf. Is 66:16) and thus the coming of God’s kingdom. To the statement about the fire, Lukáš added an allusion to the baptism with which he is to be baptized, which Mark also mentions. (cf. 10,38). Baptism is an image of Jesus’ suffering and death. Luke puts these words together to reveal another meaning: casting fire on the earth will only be possible after Jesus’ death. The fire is the Holy Spirit, which will descend on the apostles on Pentecost. This is how he mentions the words of John the Baptist: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16). This is how he predicted Christian baptism, which began on the day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the appearance of tongues of fire (cf. Acts 2:3). Jesus’ mission is therefore to cast fire on the earth, to send the Holy Spirit with his renewing and purifying power.

How do we see it in a specific case? The great Spanish writer Lope de Vega was on his deathbed. His life was playing before his eyes like a movie. He had many successes, and people embraced him with applause all his life. He enthused more than a thousand of them with theater plays. He lived only for success – and shouldn’t he be satisfied at the end of such a successful life? As his last hour approached, he suddenly saw things differently. But the attending physician told him, full of admiration: “You can die happy. The world will not forget you; you will go down in history as a great person.” “Mr. Doctor,” said the dying man, “now I recognize that only the great one with a good heart is before God. How I would like to give all the successes of my life now to be able to do one more good deed.”

Let us not wait for the end of our life like this writer, who realized that a good deed is more than worldly fame. Let’s not wait because we don’t have to have such grace as he had. Love is like fire. It mustn’t expire. That’s why you always have to burn something. Above all, our selfish “I.” Because whoever loves focuses on the other: God by fulfilling his will and the neighbor by helping him. If he puts himself on a lit fire, however small, it can one day turn into a big flame. The flame of love, peace, and universal brotherhood that Jesus came to throw on earth.