“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing”

Today in the first reading from Holy Mass St Paul tells it like it is…To walk as a Catholic is not always going to be a “bed of roses”…Remember, we are in the world but not of the world - Right?!?…..That means this is not our true home - We are merely passing through - Do we think like that? - Do we live like that?…This is what St Paul had to say….It should make us think - It made me think…..”We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise. We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things”…..St Paul not only “gets it” but St Paul lived it……The world rejected Christ and the world rejects Christ in the here and now! - That means if you side with Christ and live a life embracing the ideals of Jesus Christ - The world will reject YOU too!…..Are you ok with that? - Because that is reality!…..As Americans, we like to have our “cake and eat it too”….We like the “idea” of Jesus but do not like to “make waves”…We take Jesus “along” with us instead of following him no matter where he leads us - Come what may….To many Jesus is just some “harmless hippie”….Nothing could be further from the truth!…Jesus Christ was the GREATEST revolutionary the world has ever seen or will see…He “turned the tables” upside down - Literally!….How about us?….Do we relate to what St Paul tells us today at Mass?….Or are we looking for some “hippie” we convince ourselves is Jesus who is “ok” with everything and goes along to get along?

“As your fellow workers, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you”

As I was coming into my Catholic faith as an adult in my twenties, I did a lot of reading - To be honest with you, I still do a lot of reading….And because of this I asked my pastor in the parish I grew up in if I could teach RCIA…I had read the Catechism of the Catholic cover to cover two times and I had also read the Social Compendium to the Catechism…Not to mention numerous other books…..As I taught the faith, as it was written, I soon found out some Catholics resist the ideas I taught, which came directly from the “books” I just noted…How can that be? - Right?… I can remember one given Sunday…An old nun saw me leaving Church, I guess she heard what I was teaching and she says to me as I was leaving Mass…”Here comes trouble”…..Looking back at what Sister had said to me - I take that as a compliment…Jesus made waves and if we are not willing to make waves too - What good are we doing?…Catholics were not put on this earth to go along to get along…..Jesus tells us this pretty clearly (once again - notice the clarity coming from Jesus)……“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours”……I will be very up front - I despise lukewarm Catholicism - Its good for nothing!….For me, it’s all or nothing….Jesus tell us…..“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”…….That to me does not sound like the words from some “harmless hippie”…..That is the Jesus Christ I follow - And that is the Catholic faith I am apart of - I am not interested in counterfeits - I am all about setting the world on fire!

“A lamp to my feet is your word, a light to my path”

Today St Paul tells us at Mass that being a Catholic is not easy….And if we are finding it “easy” maybe we need to re-think about how we are living and how we interpret the words of Christ in the Gospel……Jesus Christ walked the earth to “shake the tree”….He called us to confront our very self - To re-evaluate how we live and how we treat others….That to me is not a “small ask”…And in order to accomplish all those things - Jesus founded a Church, which gives us the Sacraments to “get the job done” - Because without grace - Forget about it - Nothing gets done!…..It’s time to stop “going along to get along”….Jesus Christ was an “earth-shaker” - Are we following his example?…..Or is Jesus some harmless hippie to you?…….“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing”