Words from Father Yohanes: Blazing Without Destroying

Today, the world is filled with turmoil – wars taking many lives, gun violence, countries building more weapons, chronic sickness, family divorce, and trade conflicts that cause division. These situations take away our peace and destroy our humanity. To solve that problem, we turn to Christ, looking for harmony, peace, and reconciliation.

With such intention, we come to the church or personally open the Bible to find inspiration for life. As we open our hearts to receive God's comfort, we feel deteriorated. Because by chance, when we randomly open the Bible or enter the church, we find that the priest is reading the passage taken from Luke 12:49 - 53. There, Jesus said, “I have come to set fire on the earth (…). Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Facing this biblical reality and the need to be at peace in Jesus, we then ask questions: What can we learn from this Gospel passage? Have we come to the right place, or should we go to another one? How can we find peace and reconciliation through this difficult passage?

To explore that, we must first affirm that Jesus really set the earth with fire and division - according to the Gospel, it was already blazing. After we accept this condition, our next step is to find out the meaning of fire. Then only may we come to know the purpose of setting fire to the earth. It will give us insight to know that the purpose of fire is not to destroy but to elevate and unite the people in peace and harmony. How do we explain it?

We must start our exploration by connecting this Gospel passage with the event of Pentecost. It will give us the idea that the Holy Spirit came to the apostles in the form of fire. It was blazing and burning them. Each of them spoke a different language – parallel with division. But they were not enemies to each other. Though they spoke different languages, they accepted and understood each other. And the effect of the fire – the Holy Spirit, moved them to form the community called the early Church (Acts 2:42 - 47). Not only that, but they also shared their belongings with the people outside their community.

With this explanation, now we might say that it is true Jesus set fire on the earth – sending the Holy Spirit. It is blazing but without destroying our humanity. Instead, it elevates and unites our humanity stronger. In the context of the early Church, it was true that Jesus separated them from their Judaic tradition – division. But not to create enmity between them. Because after training them, Jesus sent the apostles back to serve their own people – sharing their belongings (Acts 2:44–47). So, Jesus called them and gave them the Holy Spirit – fire. And again, send them back to be the messengers of God’s love and peace for the world.

Responding to the biblical inspiration above, we might say that all of us are called to be messengers of God's love to the world. Let us set aside our ego, fanaticism, and narrow identities - whether Catholic, Protestant, or Muslim. We ask God to give us the Holy Spirit, the fire that empowers us to build relationships grounded in our shared humanity.

We are called by God to care for our humanity and to become messengers of Christ’s love and peace for the world.

Father Yohanes Akoit is pastor of St. Julian and St. Anthony Catholic churches in Kentucky.