Doing Everything we Can

This past weekend I worked a TEC retreat.  Going into the weekend, it felt like a scramble to finish preparing in the days leading up to Thursday and to take care of things that I wanted to get done before being gone for the weekend.  I also knew it would be a long weekend with little sleep and I was feeling a little distracted, thinking about the many other things I could be doing.  However, it didn’t take long to be drawn out of this selfish mindset and back into reality.  Thursday night, all of the team members arrived for the weekend and we had the team mass.  When I heard the first line of the Gospel reading, it was a reminder of why I was there and what the purpose of the weekend was.  This line that I was struck by in the moment was, “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!’” (Luke 12:49).  Being part of the team and serving was not about me or any of the team members, it was about helping to set the world on fire!

One of our jobs as Catholics is to help set the world on fire.  This means to share our faith, to bring our fire to those around us so that they too would be filled with the love of Jesus and be filled with that same fire.  Most of us probably want to see a world like this and so we must all play our part in helping to create this kind of world.

What if we lived in a world where each and every single person was transformed by Christ’s love?  The only way we can see this happen is if we live our faith.  This means not keeping it hidden and not staying in our comfort zone, doing nothing.  And to do this, we must be willing to show up, to serve and do whatever God has called us to do in the moment.  Whether that means working on a retreat, teaching a faith formation class, or just taking time to sit down with someone and listen, we often need to put aside our own self-serving desires and interests and do whatever it takes to commit to helping others on the journey.

Thursday night at that team mass, the scramble and hustle leading up to that evening all came to a standstill.  As the gospel was being read and the rest of the mass went on, I was reminded not only why I was there but also that I truly did want to be there because I want to see a world that is on fire.
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To see the whole world on fire  probably seems like an impossible reality.  But we can start with the people around us.  Jesus deeply desires for each and every person to be filled with the fire of His love and we probably have this desire too.  So, we must ask ourselves, what am I doing to help the people around me, in my family, parish, and community to come to know Jesus and to deepen their relationship with Him?  My prayer for all of us today is that we would do everything we can to help set the earth ablaze, just as Jesus wants!