Jesus says, “I have come to set the world ablaze.”

It’s a pretty powerful image

And one that I think, can be helpful for us.

You know over the last many years as Cardinal Cupich

Has called us to a time of renewal

Both a structural renewal but also a spiritual renewal

The image that keeps coming to my mind

Is that we all, each one of us,

Have the gift of a flame of faith.

Every single one of us through baptism,

Through the upbringing of our parents,

Through our own growing up;

All of us have a flame of faith burning in our hearts.

Don’t we?

Don’t you?

We all do.

Sometimes that flame may be, oh, about the size of a pilot light.

Sometimes that flame might be just barely struggling to stay aflame.

Sometimes that flame is large like a bonfire

And you meet people who are on fire with faith

And even say you are on fire with faith.

But I think that that image of Jesus

Coming to set the world a fire, ablaze-

I think that’s helpful for us

To think about our own spiritual journey.

How are we doing?

How are our hearts aflame with faith in Christ Jesus?

That’s a question for all of us to ponder.

But then after Jesus says that this is what

He wants a world set a fire with flame

He’s starting to talk about division

And talks about separation and division

And that’s hard to hear

Because we want to know Jesus to be

The bearer of peace not one who brings division.

An image that we can all think back to it,

Happened about six months ago in January

But an image that might be helpful for us

Is what happened in California in January.

Do you remember the wildfires

That sparked whole neighborhoods ablaze in California?

That was horrendous and all of us watched it from tv.

Over 9,000 structures were lost.

9,000 homes and businesses were lost.

How do we wrap our mind around 9,000?

What’s really unique about this tragedy

That happened in California is that in some neighborhoods

There are some houses that were not set a fire

And others that were completely lost

And there was pretty random.

Some people’s houses were fine,

Other people’s houses were completely gone.

That neighborhood was divided.

Some by tragedy,

Others by a house that didn’t get burned at all.

What does that division look like in Christ Jesus?

Forget about for a second church teaching

And just we know that sometimes there is an uncomfortableness

About sharing faith with others

And that could cause a little bit of a division

Amongst our family, amongst our friends,

Even in our marriage that might cause a division.

Some people are on fire with the flame of Christ

And some people have a hard time talking about it.

Jesus isn’t kidding when he says

That there will be in his name,

There will be sometimes division.

But I think what’s helpful is to remember

That all of us have that spark, all of us have that flame.

If we can go back to that and celebrate

Our commonality of that flame of faith in Christ Jesus

That we all share together, we can be attentive to

And definitely respectful of the different levels

Of fire that exist in people’s hearts.

In Christ Jesus we all share the flame of faith.

May all of us continue to fan the flame of faith

As we grow closer and closer to Christ Jesus in our lives.

In that way then the world does become ablaze

With faith in Christ Jesus.

Not to get too caught up in the divisions,

Not to get too caught up in how high each flame is,

But to remember that we all share it.

And as we share it we transform the world around us

To be on fire in Christ Jesus.

Amen?