Friends
Peace be with you.
In the past, I was asked if it would be okay for a certified Yoga instructor to come into a Catholic School to teach the kids a variation of Yoga. I did some research and found out that the stretching part of yoga can be a very good way for people to destress the body and even a way of staying fit. Given the level of stress our school kids are under, it was thought this could be a way for us to offer an outlet for them. However, when I looked into it a little deeper, I found that there are chants that go along with the particular poses that are directly tied to Eastern religion and the idea that one can become god. Even the names of the poses themselves are tied to pantheism, the idea that everything is made up of god and we can become god by becoming at peace with everything. When I asked the leader if she could leave out the chants and the names of the poses and just teach the stretching part, the leader basically told us she wouldn’t do that because it wouldn’t be loyal to the essence of Yoga. So we told her we couldn’t allow her to teach in our Catholic school. The more I reflected on it, the more comfortable I was with the decision, especially in the light of this particular passage of scripture.
This passage is unique to Luke’s gospel but is one I think about quite often. Jesus didn’t come to bring peace. He came to set the world on fire. Now, before we draw too many fiery conclusions, I learned a few things that may be helpful in understanding this passage. In the sandy middle east, it can often be seventy or eighty degrees in the day and thirty or forty degrees at night. They don’t have the vegetation we have that helps moderate the temperature. So, at the time of Jesus, they had these clay, or earthen, fireplaces that you would light at night to keep warm. Jesus is saying that, like those earthen fireplaces, he wishes we, his followers were like them on fire. He seems to switch to baptismal imagery quickly but this is another contrasting element of Christiantity. Jesus' baptism with fire will be his death on cross. You see, Jesus wants to light the earthen fireplace of our own persecution.
St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest. He had to sneak around during World War II in order to join the Conventual Franciscan Friars. At one point, he offered to take the place of a Jewish Man who was to be killed in a concentration camp and he was killed. During his canonization process, there were some who dug up statements made by St. Maximilian that they deemed to be anti-semitic. Everything I read from Jewish commentators about this controversy was that they lauded St. Maximilian for his willingness to die for Jews. However, it was mostly what we might call “woke” Catholics who felt we should exclude St. Maximilian from the litany of saints because of these past statements. Thankfully, St. John Paul the Great knew sanctity isn’t halted by any amount of outrage and or offense of the politically correct. He followed the procedures set up and, when the appropriate miracles were verified, he recognized this great saint for the powerful intercessor he is, which is why it’s so fitting for us to have a relic of him in our chapel. I think we can say with certainty that St. Maximilian Kolbe set the world on fire with his own persecution, just like Jesus, even if it meant a mother was set against her daughter or a son against his father.
If we are to be the earthen fireplace, filled with the Holy Spirit, it often means we will feel like we are the source of division. It may mean having to say to someone that we won’t go to yoga with them because it’s in conflict with our faith. Or it may mean we offend a family member who doesn’t feel like we should have to pause for prayer before our meal. Or it may mean we upset someone because we help an immigrant rather than toss them aside as garbage. Jesus wants us to be baptized with a fiery baptism like his own. Can we take the heat of other people’s outrage because we’re living the gospel?
