Flame and Peace, Diving and Division. Not tactical quietism

(Lk 12:49-57)

Difference “religiosity vs Faith” becomes evident in the comparison between mentality that identifies biblical Fire with punishment, and that of a sacred Flame poured out with passion of love (v.49) that evokes the Gift in our favor.

St Francis proclaimed: «Laudato sie, mi Signore, per frate focu,/ per lo quale ennalumini la notte:/ et ello è bello e iocundo/ et robustoso et forte».

[«Praise be to you, my Lord, for brother fire, / through whom you light the night: / and he is beautiful and playful / and strong and powerful»].

For the little poor man of Assisi, fire was a «noble and useful element among the creatures of the Most High» [Legenda antiqua].

He had with «friar fire» a disconcerting relationship of courtesy. Certainly it didn’t drive out the night in the same way as the Sun, but brought light.

On the contrary, the disciples’ blaze was not very wise: James and John wanted it to incinerate opponents (Lk 9:54).

Before Jesus, John the baptizer awaited a Messiah who still would immerse everyone in a devouring and executioning bonfire (Lk 3:17).

The «fire» of Faith announced by the Person and activity of the Son does not consume, does not corrode.

On the contrary, it is like a ‘Bread’: fullness of energy for a «complete life», not a destructive or separating element.

All this revives people, relationships and surrounding realities. It changes our Relationship with God, with ourselves and our neighbour.

Such is the ‘division’ proclaimed (v.51): discrimination of our Call.

In common devotion the error of evaluation or the condition of weakness is considered an infirmity, to be pointed out, corrected, punished.

"Impurities" should not be ‘melted’ into divine and providential Fire: they should only be normalised according to atavistic prescriptions or more recent sophisticated ideas [à la page].

For life in the Spirit, on the other hand, attention is elsewhere: personal oscillations become possibilities; the fellings, a new Force.

Sense of incapacity, failure and impediments arouse intensity, exchange, dialogue, new elaborations, search for other processes.

Faith is kindled wave upon wave, in welcoming and responding to God who reveals himself, calls and continues to propose – even cross-cultural mixtures that entangle purisms.

Food and Flame are also… our unsatisfactory situations: boulders that seemed to crush and make us negative are taken on board, hired, becoming gasoline that animates and propels us forward.

«Incarnation» is the recovery of opposing sides.

On this path, imperfection becomes a driving force, with its Treasures that we cannot see, hidden behind dark sides.

They are those slopes that will then dominate our Desire.

In this way, Baptism is not a procedure or a coat of grey colour and common opinion.

It is not even a device that labels, immediately cornering personalities and tensions - but rather an «Immersion» (see v. 50 Greek text).

By taking care of the neglected parts and merging the "extraneous" or different sides, from the exteriority of things we are brought back to the Origin of what happens.

[20th Sunday in O.T. (year C),  August 14, 2022]