Light a blazing fire on earth.

Jesus said he had come to light a blazing fire on earth. A raging forest fire is dramatic and destructive. We see images of this on the news. Yet, it is interesting to note that the giant sequoias, the largest trees on earth that live in California, need fire to regenerate.

Fire does things to help that tree propagate. Fire opens the pinecone so that the sequoia seeds can fall out onto the soil. Fire burns away the underbrush, so that there is less competition for water and more space to re-ceive sunshine.

We need the fire of the Holy Spirit to regenerate our spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit comes to us at baptism and his gifts continue to grow within our soul when we faithfully worship God in the sacraments, especially regular attendance at Mass and Confession, daily prayer and living out our baptismal call to serve God and those who are most in need within our family and neighbors.

The Sacrament of Baptism is completed by receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. This sacrament recalls how the Holy Spirit was poured upon the apostles and disciples 50 days (Pentecost) after Jesus rose from the dead.

The Holy Spirit manifested itself as tongues of fire over the heads of the apostles and disciples, who thus pu-rified their souls and illuminated their minds so that they would go and preach the Gospel of Christ to the world.

Just as a wildfire can destroy undergrowth that sup-presses new life of sequoia trees, the fire of the Holy Spirit divides us from sin and unites us closer to God and one another. The Holy Spirit wants to consume the sin in our life so that the divine truth of God can move us to pro-claim and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ more readily.

It is important to keep this in mind when we read to-day’s Gospel selection. For Jesus said that he wants to bring not peace, but division which is caused by the sword of the Spirit which divides sin from our lives, so that we can be united more fully to God and one another, and per-fectly united in heaven. Jesus Christ truly wants our families to be united in sanctifying grace, which is to be free from all mortal sins of serious disrespect for God and one another.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will divide us, or separate us, but only to unite us more deeply with himself and one another. This can happen on a natural level when God calls a man or a woman to enter the military. Some of the family might be proud, others might not be happy with the avocation to help defend our country’s principles, especially when some of these principles seem to be called into question by many in our country.

On a supernatural level, Jesus Christ will call young men and women to a religious vocation. They will be divided from the secular world, that is, separated from many natural goods of the world like having a family, or having a salaried career in order to be trained to be a spiritual father, or a spiritual brother or religious sister for the good of the supernatural family life of Christ’s

Church.

Again, many family members will think it is a waste of time, a waste of life, since they want the Church to change, but do not want to change for Christ and his church and sometimes do not want others to change dramatically for the service of the church.

You can read many stories of the saints who experienced this throughout the history of the Catholic Church. Take the example of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose family tried to prevent him from becoming a Dominican Order priest. His parents wanted him to become a Benedictine monk and powerful abbot at the influential Italian Abbey of Monte Casino. His family even kidnapped him and separated him from free society for almost two years. His brothers even hired a woman to try to convince him to divide himself from the priesthood altogether, but he chased her from his room with a burning log from his fire when she refused to leave him alone.

The Devil tries to separate us from God’s saving grace through mortal sin which, if the person does not repent from, leads to the fires of hell. But if a person receives the final grace of repentance, as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy offers, then the person can be saved. Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church have the mission to separate us from the devil and sins, especially mortal sins, by the fire of the Holy Spirit that illuminates our hearts and souls. The fire of the Holy Spirit purifies us to live for God and so help others on the way to salvation.

It is easy to imagine forest fires, but hard to imagine how those giant sequoia trees are helped by those fires to thrive and increase. With Christ’s divine knowledge, let us purify our imaginations and our lives by the fire of the Holy Spirit by praising God with hearts full of gratitude and love for his mercy, and grow in the practice of the faith that leads to our definitive salvation in heaven.

“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.

O God, who did instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit right judgment in all things, and ever to rejoice in his consolations, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Peace in Christ, Fr. Thomas McCabe