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Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

Hand on the fire of Christ’s love!

Hand on the fire of Christ’s love!
Homily preached Sunday, August 14, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

 

Twenty-five years ago I was living in Atlanta, Georgia and enjoyed all the excitement before, during and after the Summer Olympics took place there in 1996.

 

You may remember the excitement that was generated all across America as the Olympic Torch came from Athens, Greece and made its way through many of our major cites until it finally arrived in the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta on Opening Night to signal the beginning of the games.

 

Many different people participated in carrying the Olympic Torch across the country. What an honor it was to be selected to carry the Torch, even for a few miles along the way. There were famous people and not so famous people, who got to carry the Torch through a Town or Neighborhood & hand it on to the next person.

 

Now this was a real authentic Torch. It was heavy and it burned with real fire. And I can remember reading of how some people actually got burned while carrying the Torch along the route … when pieces of the torch would fall down on their arms.  

 

And soon most of the Torch Bearers began wearing long sleeves or wrappings over their forearms to keep them from getting burned.

 

You see, whenever you get real close to a fire, you have a chance of being burned.

 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the previous shepherd of the universal Church, spoke about this … about getting burned by ... the fire of Christ’s love!  He said, Christ’s love “must be handed on.And noted, “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.”

 

You see, just as the fire of the Olympic torch was meant to be handed on from person to person until it made its way all across the land ...

so too ... the fire of Christ’s Love is meant to be handed on from person to person until it makes it’s way all around the world!

 

And just as it was an honor to be chosen to carry the fire of the Olympic torch ...

it is similarly an honor to be chosen to carry the fire of Christ’s love.

This is a fire that we each receive on the day of our Baptism, when ...

      the Holy Spirit, who is the Fire of God’s Love, takes up residence in our soul.

 

Yes, like the Olympic torchChrist’s love is a burning fire ... and as the Pope warned uswhen you get close to the fire, you run the risk of being burned.

 

That’s what happened to the Prophet Jeremiah in our First Reading. In his efforts to hand on the word of God, he got burned so to speak … he was thrown into a cistern.

 

You see, the prince of this world, namely Satan, doesn’t want the word of God to be carried by people and spread throughout the worldSatan stands opposed to God, so he is opposed to all of us who are made in the image and likeness of God.

 

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 even gets people to turn away from the truth and to oppose the truth!

 

In our reading today, the princes accuse Jeremiah of demoralizing the soldiers.” They declared that Jeremiah “(was) not interested in the welfare of (the) people but in their ruin.”    That’s a lie, from the Father of lies!

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

 

Whenever “society” proclaims something 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, for, the Church who will tell you what’s for your good.

 

Pope 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.”

 

As followers of the Truth ... who is Jesus ... we can expect to get burned.

Recall how the King allowed Jeremiah to suffer by being thrown into the cistern; but then the King came to his rescue and had him pulled out so that he could live.

 

In the same way, Jesus, the Eternal King, may allow us to suffer in this life ...

but He’ll always be there to pull us out to safety.

 

Psalm 40 that we prayed for our Responsorial Psalm assures us of this, w/the words: He drew me out of the pit of destructionhe made firm my steps.”

 

God wants us to keep going ... in carrying the torch of Christ’s love, so that the world will come to know the Truth through us. This will take courage and focus.

 

In our Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, the author encourages us:

“persevere in running the race that lies before us ...

while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.”

 

He goes on, “For the sake of the joy that lay before him, He endured the cross.”

 

That should be our motivation too. For the sake of the joy of Heaven ...

God wants us to be willing to endure whatever cross He asks us to carry ...

as we persist in handing on Christ’s love, person after person.  

 

Just as carrying that Olympic torch across the country was work, handing on Christ’s love is work too.     Those who do it will struggle along the way. 

 

Do you find leading a good life to be a struggle?

Then you know you’re on the right track.   Being in the struggle is expected

That’s what the Saints all have in common. They all experienced the struggle!

 

And so will we!    So, we need to take heart from the words in Hebrews:

“Consider how (Jesus) 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.”

 

Christ gave His life; the Martyrs gave their lives, we may be asked to give our lives.

Remember, whenever you get close to a fire, you run the risk of being burned.

 

Later in this 12th Chapter of Hebrews, we read, “For our God is a consuming fire.”

Have you ever contemplated God that way before?

Scripture says God is love; God is mercy. Here it says God as a consuming fire!

 

What do you think of that?    Well, what is your perception of fire?

If you own a $1M house out West and you’re in the midst of a drought, the thought of a fire would fill you with fear and anguish over the possible loss of your home!

 

But if you’re stranded outdoors in cold drizzly weather, the idea of a fire would fill you with happiness and expectation at the thought of getting warm and dry.

 

God is both. He will burn away what’s bad and he will warm what’s good.

       He is a consuming fire!

 

In our Gospel today, Jesus laments,

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

 

Jesus is sad ... lamenting that we are not burning away the bad from our lives ...

and warming ourselves and others with the fire of God’s love.

 

St. Catherine of Siena, who lived in the mid-1300’s, had this to say,

       “If you become who you were meant to be, you’ll set the whole world on fire!”

       “If you become who you were meant to be, you’ll set the whole world on fire!”

 

What a great motivation this should be to all of us, especially our young people.

To be able to live a life that sets the world on fire for God and for goodness.

What a wonderful way to live ... living your life 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 speaking with fervor ... that we’re on fire for it!

 

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

“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 of God’s great love for all of us …  that God wants all of us to live with Him forever in Heaven.

 

When you stop to think about it, what better news could there possibly be? There is simply no house, no car, no vacation and no dog 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 happiness forever when we die.

 

That’s the news that Jesus wants us to carry out to the world and hand on to others.. He wants us to do this 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, they often say something like,  “Am I going to have to build a fire under you!”

 

Those words from Mom got our attention because we knew

that if she did build a fire under us ... we’d be moving pretty quickly!

 

This is Jesus’ desire ... 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 about Him to others.

 

If this continues to happen, then faith in God will just go away ...

and pretty soon no one will have any faith in Him.

 

Jesus expressed real concern about this when 6 chapters later in Luke, He asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

 

It’s up to us to pass the torch ... to hand on faith in Jesus ... the Son of God.

 

As Christians, we know Jesus Christ. But there are many who don’t know Him.  

 

And the only way that others are ever going to know about Him

and His wonderful invitation to spend Eternal Life with Him in Heaven

is if we hand on this Good News.

 

The only way ... the fire of the Olympic torch made it from Athens to Atlanta ...

was by being passed on from one person to another.

 

The only way ... the fire of Christ’s love will be known all around the world ...

is by being passed on from one person to another.

 

So our first responsibility is to really know Jesus Christ ourselves ...

which means  continuing to learn about Him, here in Church and in your Home.

 

Then you’ll be on fire for the Lord.

And as St. Catherine of Siena promised,

       “If you become who you were meant to be, you’ll set the whole world on fire!”

 

Let’s pray for the grace to be passionate in sharing the Good News about God with as many other people as we can. And let’s draw our strength and courage from Jesus’ own words ... where he said,

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

 

Let’s carry the torch ... of the fire of God’s love ... in our hearts ...

and hand it on to as many other people as we can.

 

In this way, Our Lord’s wish will be realized ...

    with the whole earth burning ... with love for God ... and love for one another.

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