Homily originally presented August 18, 2019

Jesus  … Arsonist and Home-Wrecker!

Many people today own cats … they keep them in their homes … as pets.

These kind of cats are know as domestic cats in that

people have changed the cats ... to fit into ... the home environment.

Domestic cats eat food given to them out of a can … they get their fur groomed at a animal clinic, they have their claws trimmed or taken out, and many are neutered.

This makes Domestic cats very different from Alley cats.

Alley cats hunt for their food; they eat mice or sparrows or whatever they can kill.

Alley cats keep their claws and they use their claws to climb and to fight.

Alley cats keep their reproductive organs

so they can live as they were designed to live … by instinct.

Alley cats clean and groom themselves; they’re independent, they don’t have owners.

That’s who Alley cats are!

And because that’s the way Alley cats are …

people find them objectionable to be in their home.

They want a cat ... but they don’t want that kind of cat.

So they change the way the cat really is … they domesticate them.

They take an animal that normally acts with power and strength and abandon …

and they change it into something very different … that they can hold and pet!

Now without their claws and their survival instincts, now they’re nice & cuddly …

and now they’ll allow them into their homes

This process of taking something as it really is and changing it into

something that is acceptable to us  … may be ok when it’s done to cats …

but it’s definitely not a good thing to do … to Jesus.

And we have a tendency to do it all the time! We create an image of Him that is

different from who He really is … we change Him to be more acceptable to us!

Who is Jesus?       Well, He is God … full of love … and mercy.

But if we stop there … then all we’ll have is … a Domesticated Jesus …

a nice man who tells parables, who is a good teacher and a kind healer …

a holy man who is a nice harmless figure.

And just like making a domestic cat out of an Alley Cat …  

          We’ll be making a Domestic Jesus out of the Kingly Jesus.

Do you want to know who the real Jesus is?

Well, Jesus reveals two unsettling aspects of who He is in our Gospel today!

First, He declares Himself to be an arsonist!

An arsonist!    That word rocks us because we know who an arsonist is …

a person who goes around intentionally setting places on fire.

And Jesus admits to that today saying,

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”

Arsonists are usually involved with setting a house or a building on fire.

And here Jesus is admitting that he came to set … the earth … on fire!

An Arsonist of the highest order!

What does He mean?

Jesus’ purpose for coming to us, in addition to accomplishing our redemption,

was to set the human race on fire …

on fire with the love of God … that is ...

on fire with the Holy Spirit of God!

Is the love of God a fire?

Well, how did God first reveal Himself to Moses?

It was in a Burning Bush ... a bush on fire that was not consumed!

And how did Jesus send His promised gift of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost?

It was as tongues of fire ... tongues of fire that did not burn them!

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote this about God’s love:

“Whoever comes close to (Jesus) must be prepared to be burned.

This is a fire that makes bright and pure and free and grand.

Being a Christian, then, is daring to entrust oneself to this burning fire.”

That’s what Moses did when he approached the Burning Bush …

and that’s what we do each time we approach God …

in prayer and especially in sacrament.

We’re entrusting ourselves to... a burning fire!

Have you ever thought about God being a fire?

What do you think of when you think of fire?

Do you feel fear or comfort?             Fire can bring both!

If you owned a $1M house in California and it’s the midst of a drought, the idea of a fire would fill you with fear and worry over your house being burned down!

But if you’re stranded outdoors in cold drizzly weather, the idea of a fire

would fill you with anticipation and hope at the thought of getting warm and dry.

God is Love … a consuming fire of Love … a fire that both burns and warms.  

And in His great love for us, He sent His Son, Jesus, to prepare us to be able to share in His Love … to both purify us and warm us with His Love.

In our Gospel today, Jesus laments,

“I have come to set the world on fire, and how I wish it was already blazing.”

Here, Jesus is sad that we are not burning away bad things from our lives ...

and warming ourselves and others with the love of God.

Jesus had to be wondering ... How could it be that 1800 years had gone by

from when His Father called Abraham to be the Father of a great Nation

and still the people did not burn with love for God and one another!

How was that possible?   People were simply not living as they should!

St. Catherine of Siena, gave us this image:

“If you are what you should be, you’ll set the whole world on fire!”

What a great motivation this should be to all of us, especially to our young people … to strive to live a life that sets the world on fire ... for God and for goodness!

That’s a wonderful way to live.     That’s living with passion!

Passion can be described as fervor, or zeal, or fire. When we speak passionately about something, we’re being highly enthusiastic about it.

You might say that we’re very zealous about it, or even that we’re on fire for it!

This is what Jesus is referring to in our Gospel today when He says,

“I have come to set the world on fire, and how I wish it was already blazing.”

You see, Jesus came into the world to bring us the Good News about God’s great love for all of us …  that God wants all of us to live with Him forever in Heaven.

When you think about it, what better news could there possibly be? There is simply no house, or car, or vacation or dog or cat … that could ever compare with the gift of being able to spend all eternity with God in Heaven.

Of all the good news that you could ever receive in your lifetime, that’s the very best of the Good News … that God loves us infinitely and unconditionally and wants us to live with Him in Eternal Happiness and Love when we die.

That’s the news that Jesus wants us to carry out to the world and pass on to our family and friends. He wants us to speak of it with excitement and enthusiasm.

In other words, He wants us to be on fire for the Lord!

When parents try to motivate their kids to do their homework or their chores around the house, they often say something like, “I’m going to have to build a fire under you!” It’s pretty easy to see what they mean here because if they really did build a fire under them, those kids would be up and moving pretty quickly!

This is Jesus’ desire for all of us. He wants to build a fire under every one of us.

He wants to get us moving to talk to others every day about the Goodness of God. But sadly, there are many people who go through life, day after day, and

never give a thought to God, let alone take the time to talk to others about Him.

If this continues to happen, then the fire of God’s love will grow dim and go out! Love for God and faith in God will just go away.

 and we’ll be alone in a world without love!

It’s really up to everyone of us, who have the fire of God’s love within us …

to hand on our Faith in God and our love for God to others.

The only way the fire of God’s love will be known around the world

is if it is passed on … person to person.

Only then will the whole world will be on fire for the Lord.

Jesus is an Arsonist!

He came to set the world on fire.

That was 2019 years ago … and still the world is not burning.

There’s a lot of work for us to do!

And we can do that work by recognizing another unsettling quality of Jesus.

Jesus is ... a Home-wrecker!

Yes, in our Gospel today he says,

“Do you think I have come to establish peace on earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division!

Wow! That’s quite a shocking image of the Lord … a Home-wrecker!

Jesus indeed wants to establish a great family …

but in order for that new and authentic family to emerge …

all dysfunctional forms of human community have to give way.

There has to be some tearing down to build something new!

This is required because the Prince of this world, Satan, is working against God.

Satan, doesn’t want the fire of God’s Love carried & spread throughout the world.  

The last thing he wants is for the world to know of the power and goodness of God.

So he works to prevent the truth from being handed on.

He gets people to turn away from the truth and to oppose the truth.

We hear this in our First reading today, the princes accuse Jeremiah of “demoralizing the soldiers.” They declare that Jeremiah “(was) not interested in the welfare of (the) people but in their ruin.” What a lie! Jeremiah was sent by God precisely because God was interested in their welfare …

He wanted to save them from their ruin.

The same deception is going on today!

How many people and groups there are today that promote access to such evil things as abortion, and contraceptives and euthanasia and drugs and alcohol and pornography under the pretense that these things are good for the people,

when in truth, those are the very things will bring about the ruin of the people.

When “society” proclaims to be for the good of the people, you can pretty much figure the exact opposite to be the truth.  Which is why it’s so important to stay close to the Church.           It is the Church who will tell you truly what is for your good.

Pope Emeritus Benedict wrote,

“The message of the Church is there precisely in order to conflict with our behavior,

to tear man out of his life of lies and to bring clarity and truth.

Truth makes demands, and it also burns.”

There is a great need for division in our world …

We need to separate ourselves from anything that is not good … is not of God.

In our brief passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, the author declares:

“Let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us

 and persevere in running the race while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

Yes, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus …

not the domesticated Jesus … the kind and cuddly Jesus.

but the real Jesus ... the one who’s an Arsonist and a Home-wrecker!

If you want to domesticate your cat … that’s fine.

But don’t you dare domesticate Jesus …

don’t change Him from the way He really is

just so He fits more nicely into your home.

Jesus came to set the world on fire … not to destroy … but to purify!

He wants to burn away everything that is not of Him so that we can be with Him.

He wants the fire of God’s love to burn in our hearts and warm the world.

Jesus came to create division within families … not to leave them in ruin …

but to build them up into the Family of God.

He wants to tear down everything that would ever keep us from Him.

The domesticated Jesus makes no demands … the real Jesus does!

He burns and divides … in order to warm us and unite us!