The Gospel of Luke, chapter 12:49

As Christians, we must bear the consequences and shoulder the responsibilities of following Christ. The message and teachings of Christ are beautiful; they are all about love, the one and only commandment. But, love is not about fancy words or sentimental feeling; love is a decision.

Today’s gospel message calls on us to make the kind of decisions in our lives that are Christ-anchored, that come down on the side of the gospel. Most people, it appears, like to sit on the fence, to play the game of compromise, by giving into the ways of the world while offering lip-service to the gospel.

We must hasten the time of ripening, we are reminded in today’s message, when the best decisions are called for and when the best results can be seen. “I have come,” the Lord says, “to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze was ignited.” The decision to follow Jesus is not an easy one. For the most part it is an unpopular decision: the kind of decision that may “split…son against father, mother against daughter…daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”[Luke:12:53]

Jesus saw clearly what lay ahead of Him when He accepted God’s will. He would be abandoned by his closest friends because they were afraid of the consequences of following Him. He sees clearly what lies ahead of us when we endeavor to follow Him. The cost is often a separation that is not intended, but implied. Growing spiritually is like this; Death and Resurrection are like this; you have to die to self-interest, and you have to rise to new life, by accepting the gospel in fact, and not just in theory.

Jesus does not wish to “light a fire on the earth” that will, literally, destroy and consume the environment. Not at all. Rather, He wants to light a spiritual fire within us that purifies the soul, and achieves the kind of cleansing that radical decisions bring about. Radical and practical decisions, based on the gospel, call for letting go of the old ways of the world and taking up the cross to follow Him.

Today’s message strikes a note of urgency: it is time to let go of the sin that weighs us down and follow Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Fr. Hugh Duffy