The daily readings can be found at this link:
https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
In the gospel reading Jesus tells us “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”
This can seem a troubling passage. But we must never be mistaken: Christ came to disrupt the world. He came to disrupt our systems of greed. He came to disrupt our selfishness. He came to disrupt our fear. He came to disrupt our hate. He came to disrupt systems that abuse, neglect, and crush God’s children. He came to disrupt systemic racism, violence, oppression, and the poor being crushed under the weight of the wealthy. Make no mistake about it: he came to disrupt our world.
After the Ascension, this disruption carries on through the Holy Spirit. Christ gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to set us ablaze with the passion to love and serve God’s children. The Holy Spirit is sent to burn away our greed, to burn away the barriers that we erect between ourselves, to burn down the systems of hate, inequality, marginalization and greed.
God comes to us in the Holy Spirit to set us on fire with love. Let us pray that love will consume all of us, burn away anything of us that is not of God, and leave us to live, serve, and die as true lights of Christ.
Let the Holy Spirit set us ablaze, that we may live the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary in The Magnificat:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever. (Lk 1: 46-55)