“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Thursday, 22nd October 2020.
Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Eph 3:14-21
Ps 32:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19
Lk 12:49-53
FIRE OR PEACE
Jesus brings fire to the earth? “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! I have a baptism with which to be baptized and what stress I am under until it is completed!”
The symbolism of fire recurs often in the Scriptures and it does not have just one meaning. It could mean devastation and chastisement; it could also signify purification (Is 1:25; Zech 13:9). It could even signify divine protection as evidenced in Isaiah: “When you walk through fire the flame shall not consume you - for I will be with you” (43:2). John the Baptist was baptizing with water, but Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire (Lk 3:16). Here the symbol of fire is associated with the action of the Holy Spirit who descended on the day of Pentecost in the form of fiery tongues (Acts 2:2-4).
The symbols never have one definite meaning. They can provoke the imagination of different authors with different interpretations. Here, the symbol of fire associated with the symbol of baptism could be understood as indicating a direction to which Jesus wants people to turn their imagination. Generally, baptism is associated with water, and it is always an expression of commitment. Yet from another perspective baptism appears to be a symbol of Jesus’ commitment to his passion: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Mk 10:38)
Jesus always speaks of peace, but in today’s Gospel he speaks of having come to cause division! That does not mean Jesus favours divisions. But the proclamation of the truth that Jesus was the promised messiah became a cause of division among the Jews and sometimes even within the same family or community. This division had already emerged during the passion and death of Jesus, while Jesus had only willed to unite all humanity in truth!
Prayer: Lord, sanctify us in the truth. Amen.
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