Jesus said to His disciples: “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! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
Today’s gospel is a striking one. It contradicts the common view of a peaceful, kind Jesus. While peace and kindness are characteristics of Jesus’ ministry, particularly toward the repentant sinner, Jesus is clear that He and those who follow Him will cause division in the world.
This is because of the nature of the fallen world. A world mired in sin hates the manifestations of God and His revelations to man. God calls for the sinner to change and come out of himself. Anytime someone is required to change it causes a degree of pain or discomfort for that person. So in an act of self preservation, the unrepentant sinner resists this change, sometimes at all costs. As a result, the sinner can pit themselves completely against God and all those who follow Him which causes division.
The cardinal sin since the beginning of the human race has been pride. Our first parents lost trust in the Heavenly Father, and tried to replace Him with themselves rather than go through the pain and discomfort of loving obedience to His will. This is the reality of being human. We are called by God to grow into a loving and trusting relationship with Him. He is calling us to enter his life. But we can either choose to endure the growing pains of trusting in God, or preserve ourselves by rejecting our Heavenly Father. Because of our parents’ first sin and our own human nature, we have the tendency to choose rejection of God over trust in Him due to our selfishness. This is evident by all eras of history that are torn by sinful strife.
What is the solution? Jesus speaks of it when He says, There is a baptism with which I must be baptized. The baptism is a baptism of trust and love. It is to endure trials for the sake of the good. It is to choose God above all else, trusting that no matter what happens to us, it cannot separate us from God’s love.
We do not have the ability and strength to endure this Baptism, and Jesus knew this. But He did have the ability, and He wanted to give each of us the ability to endure this baptism. Through His baptism of the cross and then giving us His gift of Baptism in the sacraments, we can be welcomed back into the family of God which is united in deep love despite its trials on this earth. This is why Jesus says, How great is my anguish until it is accomplished! He is not in anguish because of the pain that He will have to endure (although He will experience that anguish in the Garden of Gethsemene). Rather, He is in anguish because of His earnest desire to bring us closer to Himself.
So as Christians, and especially Catholics, we strive to navigate a world that is becoming increasingly more hostile to Jesus and His followers. We must be ready to not only bring peace to the world, but also to endure the cross, as Jesus does. Because the wisdom of Jesus that confounds human sensibilities is that the cross will conquer. Trust and love in God that is perfected in the fire of persecution is what changes us, and consequently is what changes the world. So be not afraid! Through submitting Himself in love, He has conquered death so that we who die with Him will rise with Him.
