Hearts ablaze
The Luke 11:9 series: Heart's Ablaze
I used to be perplexed when Jesus warned his disciples, "Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For, from now on, five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided 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.” [Luke 12:51-53]
Prima facie, it seems very harsh. Did the Prince of Peace come to disrupt families? It doesn't sound right; surely it can't be! But let's take a closer look.
Jesus Christ came to preach the Gospel to a largely disbelieving and sometimes self-righteous people. His message was too radical, calling for a change of heart. And let's face it: We humans don't do well with change, especially when someone calls out our faults and asks us to correct our mistakes.
Jesus came to set the world on fire, unleashing in us the power of God's love through the Holy Spirit. So-called successful, educated, rich and well-placed people who had worked themselves in a very comfortable lifestyle found this message of 'loving one another like God loves' very repugnant. In our materialistic world, it is each for themselves.
Others who followed the road less travelled with Christ found a peace that had eluded them. They tasted his grace and it was beyond anything they had experienced.
Over a thousand years before Christ, the Psalm of King David bore witness to this truth, "The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." [Psalm 19:8-10]
Even after the Resurrection, St Paul, in the letter to the Ephesians, reiterated this message, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." [Ephesians 3:14-21]
St Paul's Epiphany on the Road to Damascus
There is no example of 'hearts ablaze' better than that of Saul of Tarsus, aka St Paul Apostle of the Gentiles. Here is the passage from the Acts of the Apostles [Acts 22:3-21]:
“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished. “Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ So I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ “And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me. So I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.’ And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus. “Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to me; and he stood and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that same hour, I looked up at him. Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’ “Now it happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance and saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.’ So I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe in You. And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’ Then He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.’ ”
“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is sufficient.” ― Stuart Chase
This dichotomy of disbelief and grace, results in deep rifts in society, among friends and even among loved ones.
And the devil is never too far with temptations that harden our hearts to the loving message of God. Satan is on a mission to destroy God's creation and usually finds that the age-old tricks of duplicity, double talk and prevarication can disguise the sins of pride, greed, hatred, envy, lust etc. It can cloud our better judgement and corrode the soul bringing out the very worst in humans.
The sad truth is when you dance with the devil, there is no place for true love, the kind that Jesus demands.
And this is what Jesus asks of us, and for some, it was a price too high to pay, "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you that you love one another." [John 15:9-17]
Now you understand why Christ knew that his radical message of love, would disrupt even families. But our time on Earth is just the journey, the destination is eternal life in Heaven. Are you ready to heed Christ's call and set your heart ablaze with his message of true love?
Thomas Merton has this very incisive metaphor of sealing wax and our very soul, in his book, 'New Seeds of Contemplation': “Our Souls are like wax waiting for a seal. By themselves, souls have no special identity. Their destiny is to be softened and prepared in this life, by God’s will, to receive, at their death, the seal of their own degree of likeness to God in Christ. And this is what it means, among other things, to be judged by Christ. The wax that has melted in God’s will can easily receive the stamp of its identity, the truth of what it was meant to be. But the wax that is hard and dry and brittle and without love will not take the seal: for the hard seal, descending upon it, grinds it to powder. Therefore if you spend your life trying to escape from the heat of the fire that is meant to soften and prepare you to become your true self, and if you try to keep your substance from melting in the fire—as if your true identity were to be hard wax—the seal will fall upon you at last and crush you. You will not be able to take your own true name and countenance, and you will be destroyed by the event that was meant to be your fulfilment.”
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