"Just about the worst thing we can do with Jesus is to domesticate him, to turn him into a nice, harmless figure, simply a teller of tales and a wise spiritual teacher. He announces himself as an arsonist. I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! Jesus' purpose was to set the human race on fire with the Holy Spirit, and that fire would burn away the chaff of sin, corruption, cruelty, and violence. Jesus and the fiery Spirit would clear the spiritual ground, painfully if necessary, in order to create something new.
The arsonist also characterizes himself as a home-wrecker! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three. Jesus indeed wants to establish a great family. He himself called it the Kingdom of God, and the great tradition refers to it as the mystical body of Christ. But in order for that new and authentic family to emerge, all dysfunctional forms of human community have to give way. If a family or society or culture is predicated upon manipulation, games of domination, arrogance, and fear, then it has to be undermined, cleared away.
The domesticated Christ makes no demands. The real Christ burns and divides - in order to make all things new."
Fr. Robert Barron, Magnificat, August 2013
"Whoever comes close to him must be prepared to be burned. This is a fire that makes things bright and pure and free and grand. Being a Christian, then, is daring to entrust oneself to this burning fire."
Pope Benedict XVI
Beautiful words, full of wisdom. We do not like the idea of being burned. We humans are such poor judges of what is good and of what we need.
ReplyDeleteI liked this a lot.