Lk 12: 49-53 "FIRE" by deacon Jim Moss I have ... - St. Mary's Church

Lk 12: 49-53
"FIRE"
by deacon Jim Moss
I have come to set the earth on fire”Pope Francis recently released an
encyclical entitled, “Lumen Fidei”, the light of faith. Pope Benedict had
started it and Pope Francis finished it so that it could be released during
this the, “Year of Faith”. From “Lumen Fidei”, “those who believe, see;
they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from
the risen Christ.” And “The light of Faith is unique since it is capable of
illuminating every aspect of human existence.” This light of Faith, our
acceptance of God’s love for us, is the fire that Jesus is talking about in
our gospel. Our awareness of, and acceptance of God’s love will set us
on fire.
Does your Faith in God’s love set you on fire; are you on fire for Jesus?
Does God really, really matter to you? Does your Catholic faith really
matter to you? In order to get at the answers to these questions we must
first understand the context within which we ask them. That context is a
relationship between God and ourselves, a relationship that he offers to
each of us. In a relationship between us and someone else, we know
some basic foundational things about ourselves and the other person:
who we are, who they are, in what way are we connected, why we are
connected. We know some basic things that establish a context, a basis

for our relationship. To begin to understand our relationship with God
we must know these foundational things that establish the context for
our relationship with Him. These foundational things are about God and
you and I, and every human being. For our purposes there are five: The
FIRST foundation in our relationship with God is; “God created you and
I and every human being so that He could love us”. His love for us is the
basis for all that is. Authority and power with a scorecard He is not ! He
is a loving Father and we His children. From father Robert Barron, his
book entitled, “The Strangest Way”: “At the center of Christianity is
God who comes after us with a reckless abandon, breaking open His
own heart in love in order to include us in the rhythm of His own life.
The SECOND foundation in our relationship with God is; “He created
us to live in a relational existence, to Him, to each other, ourselves, our
work, family, our play”. Our entire existence is relational. “Those who
seek their life will lose it, and those who give up their life will find it”.
This scripture appears six times in the gospels and expresses what many
think is the central theme of Christianity, “give up your self- interest”.
What makes all relationships work is the Gospel, giving up our selfinterest.
We know this from our own experience. The best managers,
leaders, teachers, parents, and people we know are those who can give
themselves up and be for somebody besides themselves. The worst
managers, leaders, teachers, parents, and people we know are those who
can’t, those who are about themselves.

What works in all of our relationships, especially our relationship with
God, is the path that Jesus gave us, that scripture, and the Church gives
us, “give ourselves”. The THIRD foundation in our relationship with
God is; “We are spiritual beings”. As human beings we are both spirit
and matter. We live in two dimensions; time and space, and the spiritual
dimension. From Genesis: “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness.” From Tielhard De Chardin a 19th century French Jesuit
Philosopher; “We are not human beings pursuing a spiritual existence;
we are spiritual beings having a human experience”. Our eternity has
already begun, we are spiritual beings. We already share in God’s life;
we will never cease to exist. The FOURTH foundation in our
relationship with God is; “God is present within each human being, and
is actively guiding us to Himself”. God’s active presence within us is
varied, strange, and unpredictable, but it is not occasional. He does not
come and go. He is always in pursuit of us. From St. Augustine; “Late
have I loved you, O beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!
you were within me but I was outside, and it was there that I searched
for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into lovely things which you
created. You were within me, but I was not with you.” The FIFTH
foundation in our relationship with God is; “Creation is an ongoing
reality, not an event”. We are loved by God as we are with all of our
warts, not as we think we should be. As good parents love their child,
unconditionally, so God loves you and I. It is ours to respond to God’s

love. Our journey to God, Is just that, a journey, a process, where we
cooperate with God’s active ever present love for us, and His continuing
creation of us. It is a journey that we share with one another, where we
respond to God’s call for us to be His love in the world. A journey that is
not so much about me as an individual as it is about all of us. Again
from, Pope Francis’ encyclical “Lumen Fidei”, “Christian faith,
inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God’s total love and opens us to the
power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience. Each
of us comes to the light because of love, and each of us is called to love
to remain in the light. Once we discover the full light of Christ’s love,
we realize that each of the loves in our own lives had always contained a
ray of that light, and we understand its ultimate destination. That fact,
that our human loves contain that ray of light, also helps us see how all
love is meant to share in the complete self-gift of the Son of God for our
sake”. FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE; Faith, we accept God’s love, Hope
we trust in God’s love, and Love, we give, we give God’s love. These
five foundations, of our relationship with God, are conditions of our
existence, like gravity or the air we breathe, but do we see them that
way? We see the world as we are, not as it is. We form our perceptions,
our expectations, from our own experiences, from our living and
learning. We form our ideas about God, and our relationship to Him the
same way. How well do your ideas about the relationship between you

and God, your perceptions and expectations, fit into the context we just
described? Do you know that you are precious to God???
YOU ARE PRECIOUS TO ME AND TO GOD !!!!!!! Now that you
know who you are to God, How precious you are to Him, who is He to
you? You were created in love, to be loved by God, you were Baptized
in love, you were Redeemed in love, you are Destined for love.
Are you not on “FIRE”?