Ordinary Time 20
August 18, 2025
Fire, Baptism, Division
Jesus shares
with us three important elements of the Christian life, through three symbols:
fire, baptism, and division. Let’s look at what He means.
Fire has
a way of making everything else into fire. If a fire touches a log, then the
log becomes fire, even though it doesn’t stop being a log. Likewise, the goal
of the Christian life is to be like Jesus. When we draw close to Him, we become
like Him, even though we don’t stop being ourselves. I’ve often quoted the words
of St. Gregory of Nyssa: “A Christian is another Christ.” This is the goal of
the Christian life: as St. Athanasius put it, “God became man so that man may
become God.”
We do
this through grace. Just like a piece of wood can’t light itself on fire, so we
can’t become holy without God doing it in us. Grace is God’s fire lighting our
soul on fire; we desire to burn for Him. Grace is given through the Sacraments,
especially Confession and a worthy reception of Communion, and through our
daily prayer. The closer we get to a fire, the more likely we will be set ablaze
– the more time we spend with God through the Sacraments and daily prayer, the
more likely we will “catch fire” with love for Him.
Jesus
then speaks about baptism – which is about cleansing and purification.
Spiritual writers have identified three main stages in the spiritual life. The
first stage is called the Purgative Way – that is, the goal of this stage is to
eliminate sin. Certainly all mortal sin, which destroy the life of grace in our
soul (sins such as intentionally missing Mass, drunkenness or drugs, dabbling
in the occult, or any sexual activity outside of marriage), but even deliberate
venial sin (a lesser kind of sin such as small lies, petty thefts, unkind
words, impatience, saying God’s Name irreverently) and even accidental
venial sins. Most Christians get stuck on this first stage of the spiritual life
and don’t realize that they are called to full union with God! But to be like
Jesus means to give up anything in your life that is not like Jesus.
In pagan
Roman times, it was customary for a father of a family to place a special
amulet around the neck of their newborn children – a gold or metal one with the
image of a pagan god on it for the boys, a gold one in the shape of a crescent
moon for the girls. But when many of these pagans began converting to
Christianity, they were instructed to throw them away. Even St. Gregory of Nazianzen
wrote, “You have no need of amulets... with which the Evil One makes his way
into the minds of simpler folks, stealing for himself the honor that belongs to
God.” If they were unwilling to throw away the amulets, they were unworthy of
the grace of baptism.
Likewise,
this baptism that Jesus refers to is not just the Sacrament that babies receive
– He is referring to the complete cleansing of our souls from sin. We must be
willing to throw away our “pagan amulets” – whatever sins we are clinging to,
whatever bad habits we’ve developed – so that we are purged and purified for
the grace of salvation.
Finally,
Jesus mentions that the consequence is division. Or rather, more broadly, that
Christians are called to be a sign of contradiction. Jesus says in the Gospels
that “the ruler of this world” is actually Satan – for two thousand years, it’s
never been the “popular” thing to be a Christian, even sometimes within one’s
own family. Thus could St. Francis stand in the town square and strip off all
of his clothes, throwing them at his father and declaring that he would have no
other Father than God. Thus could St. Thomas More declare, right before his
martyrdom, that he was “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” Thus could
St. Edith Stein convert from Judaism to Catholicism, despite the fact that it
meant her family would never speak with her again. Thus could St. Pier Giorgio
Frassati continue to use his family’s wealth to serve the poor, while his
family thought he was just a delusional religious fanatic. If we’re not a sign
of contradiction, we’re not on-fire with the love of Jesus Christ!
But all
this is hard – to repent of sin, to pursue virtue, to cooperate with grace, to
be a sign of contradiction. So our second reading gives us the strength: keep
your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is worth it. He has endured it first. He has
entered into Heaven and invites us to join Him. In fact, this reading is so
jam-packed with strength that I want to quote it again: “[Let us keep] our
eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy
that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has
taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such
opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In
your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
blood.” Notice we see all three elements: the fire of divine love (keep
your eyes fixed on Jesus and what He did for us on the Cross). The baptism (we
must struggle against sin). The contradiction (He already endured such opposition).
And also – the hope (it was for the sake of the joy that lie before Him that He
did all this).
So –
have you drawn near to the fire or do you need to make the Sacraments and daily
prayer a more central part of your life? What sins are preventing you from the
purification God desires to do in you? And do you need more courage to stand
apart from this world for the sake of God?
It’s all
worth it. Jesus is worth it, and the hope found in Him is worth it. He’s offering
us a better way to live – with fire, with purpose, cleansed from sin, made holy
and righteous through His grace.
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