October 25, 2018
Thursday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Eph 3:14–21 Gospel: Luke 12:49-53
Jesus said to his disciples, “I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled; but I have a baptism to undergo and what anguish I feel until it is over!
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, in one house five will be divided; three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus was so consumed with love for humanity that he gave his life to bail us out from eternal damnation. This passion for our salvation often showed in his statements. In today’s Gospel, for example, we read, “I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled.” Fire is a symbol both of passion and of faith. His passion was to set the world ablaze with the fire of faith so that all would be saved. That fire is already kindling in the hearts of those who believe. Just how fiery is faith burning in our hearts?
Years ago I experimented on a visual homily about faith. I called a young boy over and showed him what I had in my hand: a glass of water filled to the brim and covered only with a piece of cardboard. I asked the boy if he would let me invert the glass over his head without holding the cover in place. He hesitated for a while but in faith he eventually submitted himself to the experiment.
Slowly I inverted the glass over his head without holding the cover in place. Many in the assembly were breathless. Those who remembered the principles of pressure enjoyed watching Physics at work. The boy had little or no idea at all what was going on. All he knew was that it was his faith that spared him from getting wet.
On September 27, 2007, that boy died at the age of 17. At a Mass on his 40th day the Gospel reading was about faith. I only realized during the homily that it was the same Gospel passage I read years ago when I overturned a glass of water over his head to demonstrate the kind of trust involved in an act of faith.
“Faith is the substance of faith hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Now that he is dead he doesn’t need faith anymore because he now possesses that which he had hoped for. He is dead; we are alive. May the same fire of faith continue to burn in our hearts and sustain Jesus’ desire to set the world on fire! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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