Meditation

In today's Gospel (cf. Lk 12:49-53), Jesus warns his disciples that the time for decision has come. Indeed, his coming into the world coincides with the time of decisive choices: the choice of the Gospel cannot be postponed. And to better convey his call, he uses the image of the fire he came to bring to earth. He says: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (v. 49). These words are intended to help the disciples abandon any attitude of laziness, apathy, indifference, and closed-mindedness in order to welcome the fire of God's love; this love which, as Saint Paul reminds us, “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” ( Rom 5:5).

For it is the Holy Spirit who makes us love God and love our neighbor; it is the Holy Spirit that we all have within us. Jesus reveals to his friends, and to us as well, his most ardent desire: to bring to earth the fire of the Father's love, which sets life ablaze and by which humanity is saved.

Jesus calls us to spread this fire throughout the world, by which we will be recognized as his true disciples. The fire of love, kindled by Christ in the world through the Holy Spirit, is a fire without limits; it is a universal fire. This was evident from the earliest days of Christianity: the witness of the Gospel spread like a benevolent conflagration, transcending all divisions between individuals, social classes, peoples, and nations. The witness of the Gospel burns; it burns away all forms of particularism and keeps charity open to all, with a preference for the poorest and most excluded.

Adherence to the fire of love that Jesus brought to earth envelops our entire existence and demands both the worship of God and a willingness to serve our neighbor. Worship of God and a willingness to serve our neighbor. The first, worshipping God, also means learning the prayer of adoration, which we often forget. That is why I invite everyone to discover the beauty of the prayer of adoration and to practice it often. And then the second, the willingness to serve one's neighbor: I think with admiration of so many communities and youth groups who, even during the summer, dedicate themselves to this service for the sick, the poor, and the disabled. To live according to the spirit of the Gospel, we must, in the face of the ever-new needs emerging in the world, have disciples of Christ who know how to respond to them with new initiatives of charity. Thus, through the worship of God and the service of one's neighbor – the two together, worshiping God and serving one's neighbor – the Gospel truly manifests itself as the fire that saves, that changes the world from the change of each person's heart.

In this light, we also understand Jesus' other statement in today's passage, which may seem disconcerting at first glance: "Do you think I came to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division" (Lk 12:51). He came "to separate with fire." To separate what? Good from evil, justice from injustice. In this sense, he came to "divide," to bring about a "crisis"—but a salutary one—in the lives of his disciples, shattering the easy illusions of those who believe they can reconcile Christian life with worldliness, Christian life with compromises of all kinds, religious practices with attitudes against their neighbor. Some think they can reconcile true religiosity with superstitious practices: how many so-called Christians go to fortune tellers or fortune-tellers to have their palms read! And that, they say, is superstition; it is not from God. It's not about living hypocritically, but about being ready to pay the price for consistent choices—this is the attitude each of us should strive for in life: consistency—paying the price of being consistent with the Gospel. Consistency with the Gospel. For it's good to call oneself a Christian, but above all, one must be a Christian in concrete situations, bearing witness to the Gospel, which is essentially love for God and for our brothers and sisters.

May Mary Most Holy help us to let our hearts be purified by the fire brought by Jesus, so that we may spread it through our lives, through decisive and courageous choices.

POPE FRANCIS

ANGELUS

Saint Peter's Square

Sunday, August 18, 2019