The Fire That Divides and Heals

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

17 August 2025

 

First Reading: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18

Second Reading: Hebrews 12:1-4

Gospel: Luke 12:49-53

 

Reflection By:

Bro. Carlo Alexis Malaluan

Diocese of Imus

I met Elizabeth in a retreat in Tagaytay. We became friends and told me her life story. After years of living a life centered on success and approval as a corporate manager in a multi-billion company in BGC, she encountered Christ in a deeply personal way during a silent retreat. Since then, something shifted. She didn’t become a saint overnight — no one does — but her priorities began to change. She started going to daily Mass, simplified her lifestyle, and spoke openly about her faith. At first, her family was proud. But soon, they began to feel uncomfortable. “You’re becoming too intense,” they said. “You used to be more fun.” The same people who once supported her began to keep their distance. She was torn — faith had awakened something beautiful in her, but it also brought a quiet kind of pain: misunderstanding, distance, even rejection even from the persons closest to her.

Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are not easy to hear: “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing!” And then, even more jarring: “Do you think I have come to bring peace? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

This doesn’t sound like the Jesus we imagine—the gentle shepherd, the healer of wounds, the one who calms storms. But the fire He speaks of is not the fire of violence or vengeance. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of truth, the fire of transforming love. And yes, that fire brings division—not because it seeks to destroy, but because it compels us to choose.

There are moments when the Gospel will disturb our peace—not the peace of Christ, but the false peace we often cling to: peace based on pleasing everyone, avoiding difficult conversations, staying silent when truth is inconvenient. Jesus comes to set a fire to those illusions. And when someone begins to live out that Gospel, to walk away from comfort and toward conversion, it can cause ripples—sometimes even among those closest to us.

That’s why Jesus speaks of households divided. The Gospel changes people. It reorders priorities. And not everyone is ready for that change. Just like the young woman, when we begin to live with deeper conviction, we may be met not with applause, but with resistance—even misunderstanding or rejection from those who love us.

But here’s the truth: Jesus does not bring fire to punish. He brings fire to purify. The division He speaks of is not the end, but the beginning of something new. He divides not to scatter, but to reveal—to show us what truly matters, to awaken us from complacency, to call us into deeper fidelity.

So if you’re feeling that fire—if your faith has begun to cost you something, or set you apart—don’t be discouraged. That may be the very sign that Christ is near, burning away what cannot last, to make room for what is eternal.

Because the fire He brings does not only divide. It also heals, transforms, and sanctifies. It leaves us freer, truer, and more fully alive.

Prayer