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Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Fr. Joseph Gifford, Associate Pastor August 18, 2019

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I have come to set the Earth on fire and how I wish it were already blazing is it the first Words of Christ in Our Gospel and they are somewhat a call to action for each one of us I had the privilege in January to go to Rome while I was there I visited the venerable English College that is the Seminary for all of the seminarians from England Scotland Wales in Rome and it was established because a couple hundred years ago the seminarians could no longer study to become priests in England they were under persecution and so they went to Rome and with this understanding that has Kris if they were to go back home they would very likely die with this understanding they did not lose heart in fact they chose these words of Christ at the beginning of our gospel as their motto I have come into the world to set it on fire and how I wish it were already blazing because you see these men understood the inherent connect between being on fire for God being on fire with a fire of God and witnessing to their face even to the point of giving their lives we can really only understand this ourselves when we look at what fire does there many different things that fire do you I would just simply like to look at three of them first fire burns any of us who've put her hand a little too close to the stove or too close to a bonfire no fire burns and so the fire of God also Burns when we have the fire of God in our souls Burns away the chaff it burns away sin now this isn't exactly the most comfortable process in the world often we lie Carson's even though we know we shouldn't and so we have to be willing to go through that pain of burning so that play we can be free from sins we can be free from these disordered attachment disorder desires whether or not it's comfortable second fire purifies it refines it takes what is good it's already there and makes it better fire refines gold burns out the impurities and takes what gold is there and makes it more precious filled with splendor install the fire of God in our souls takes what is good and makes it better when we start to do things good actions for the sake of God and for the love of him when we start the burn with that fire even Little Things can radiate God's glory little decisions we make little things we say once refined by the fire of God speak to his power his love and his majesty and here we find Freedom again not simply a freedom from sin the Freedom From Evil that we find in the burning but we find a freedom for a freedom for the good we are able to do good acts better we're able to grow in virtue when we are refined by the fire of God wefi a deeper sense of Freedom here and then third fire gear energy as any chemist knows fire is the expenditure of energy like we see in our candles here this morning the energy that's potential in the wax is made kinetic through the fire And so when we are filled with the fire of God our souls the chaff becomes the source of energy as it is burned away as the gold of our souls is refined we find energy within ourselves this energy that only comes from the fire of God the fire of God that was given to the church at Pentecost that filled the apostles with this same energy to go out and spread the news of Jesus Christ that same fire that resides in the church today that gives the church its missionary nature because at her s the church is called to go out not to Simply hold the fire within about to spread it across the world how I'm coming to the world to set it on fire and how I wish it were already burning this is the call of Christ for the church and as part of the church the call for each and every one of us to spread that fire the venerable English martyrs those priests who studied in Rome going back to die in there country song I'm Only 3 weeks after their ordination they understood that's be filled with the fire of God meant to burn away the chaff to be refined and to spread with energy the fire of God throughout the world I have come to set the Earth on fire and I've how I wish it were already burning are you burning

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Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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