Gospel Reflection on Luke 12:49-53

August 17, 2025

“I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

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I was laid off from one of my jobs in June. Seven years ago, Bishop McGratton appointed me the Bishop's delegate. The job of the delegate is to respond to allegations of abuse. So for the past seven years, I've worked with a committee of excellent people responding to complaints about being abused by others. I thought I was doing a pretty good job.

I didn't know very much about Canon law, and I sometimes I wasn't a very good note taker, but I thought I was a pretty good listener and accompanied many survivors as they attempted to heal. In June, the bishop told me he had appointed someone else as the bishop's delegate. Well, the job never really belonged to me, but I grew attached to the work, and I took a great deal of satisfaction in doing a good job. So I was disappointed when he told me I was being replaced by a much younger priest. My reaction to the news pointed out to me how attached I am to wanting things to stay the way they are, to wanting things to be done in a certain way, to this idea of permanence.

And we might not think we're overly attached to things, but surprisingly, we're often very attached to how things how something is going to turn out to the outcome of some work. Take a moment and ask yourself, how attached are you to certain outcomes? Is there some event or activity that you are part of that you want to go a certain way? Have you set a timetable for something to happen? Are you fixated on someone doing something in a way you want? Do you think something will be a disaster if it doesn't go exactly as you planned?

The reason we want things to turn out a certain way is because we think that will make us feel good, feel happy when we get there. But if you don't feel good on your way there, you won't be satisfied when you get there. We have to learn to be satisfied with what is. Our satisfaction with what is allows us to be happy and peaceful regardless of whether we have exactly what we think we need.

And accepting what is at this present moment means accepting that life is not permanent. That's what we want, permanent. We want our possessions, we want our bodies, we want our work, everything to stay the same. Yet life is in a constant state of flux. When we hold on to something as if it will last forever, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment.

If we can accept that everything passes away, we can appreciate the present moment without clinging to it. This understanding allows us to love and care deeply while still remaining free. We begin to see our desires are not something to be suppressed, but a natural part of human experience. Desire comes and goes, rising and fading away like waves on the ocean. We notice our desires with compassion and understanding, but we need to realize they're not as solid or overwhelming as we once thought.

Only then do they lose their power over us. Not because we have forcefully ignored them, but because we've accepted them as emotions that come and go.

Today, Jesus paints a picture of a very divided world, divided families, divided communities. We live in a world that pushes us to take sides, to identify someone as the enemy, to find fault with the way something has turned out, with how someone has done a job. When we let go of this attachment to outcomes to how things turn out, we no longer feel the need to take a side. Ironically, the world will turn on us for our refusal to take a side.

God's word is a word of promise about the future, a word that is meant to deepen within us a spirit of trust. We're called to do what we've been asked to do and leave the outcome in God's hands. Detachment means doing the right thing for its own sake because it needs to be done without worrying about success or failure.

For us, there should be only the trying. The rest is not our business. Detachment is the freedom to love without the fear of losing, to care without clinging, and to live without the burden of envy. This is the freedom Jesus promises, the fire he has come to set ablaze.