20th Sunday Year C - on fire with Love

I'd like us each to think for ourselves about a simple question, one that I think how we answer, can really change not just how we see the world, but how we see our faith, how we see God, and what it means, really, to follow Jesus Christ.   What does a saint look like?   What does a saint act like?  How does a saint behave?

I think sometimes, it can be easy to get the image that a saint is a boring person who stays in Church all day, goes home, prays their rosary, always does everything exactly the way they're supposed to, never gets into any trouble, is always solemn and sad-faced, and well, somewhat dull and boring.  It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking…following Jesus is just about doing what we're supposed to do. 

One of the perks of my long drive out to my other parish that I make every week, is that I have lots of time in the car to listen to audiobooks.  One of the things you'll learn about me is that I love stories, especially stories of our faith, stories of saints and their adventures.  Not to long ago, I just finished a couple amazing books on some different saints.  The real stories of saints, almost to a person, are love stories, stories of people madly in love with Jesus Christ, with our Lady.  They're full of people who do wild and crazy things out of their love for God.

I remember a certain priest I once heard giving a talk, he said…when you think of what our relationship with Jesus Christ should really be like, imagine a boy talking to his first crush.  Imagine a man deeply in love with his wife.  Now, do you need to tell that boy…."if you really like her…you should probably hold her hand every once in a while?"  Do you need to tell the man deeply in love with his wife "you should probably do something nice for her every once in a while?"  Of course not….because those are the very sort of things they want to do, because he loves her.  Would he think twice about sacrificing for her?  Of course not, because as he looks at his beloved, he realizes, she's worth more that anything in the world to him.  Don't we all want a love like that?

When I hear this Gospel, and Jesus says I have come to set the world on fire, I can't help but think of a certain Dominican  Doctor of the Church, St. Catherine of Sienna.  She's often quoted as saying, "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire."  Although, in a way, I like the original quote better.   What St. Catherine actually said, as a young lay woman from Sienna was, "if you are what you should be, you will set a fire, not just here, but to all of Italy."  I like that better, when we say the whole world, it's easy to pretend that it's some pie-in-the-sky far off goal.  Instead, imagine if she was talking about us…"if we really love Jesus Christ the way we ought to, we'll set not just Northern Cambria on Fire, but all of Cambria County." 

We like to say that Jesus is a God of Love, but do we really realize just what that means.  How often do we hear.  Jesus preached love, not hate.  How often do we hear, Jesus taught us to be compassionate toward others.  That's most certainly true, but let's face reality, nobody got nailed to a cross for simply being a nice guy. 

Jesus was dangerous because he really loved us, with all his heart and soul, he was willing to give anything, even his life for us.  He was willing to take any risk, to suffer even death on the cross for us, the ones he loved.  That made him different, that made him uncontrollable.  That love was infectious, it gave those who followed him the power to resist anything the world could throw at them.

Think of the stories we hear in our world, the movies we see, the tv shows we watch.  How many of them include a story about someone willing to do absolutely anything for the one they love, against all odds, no matter how crazy it seemed.  How many of those stories have that one scene, where the main character realizes things probably aren't going to end well for them…but because of the one they love, they decide to do it anyway.  In every one of those stories, the character had found something, someone in this world worth fighting for.  That's what love looks like.

When I hear the stories of the saints, they weren't people just plodding along through life obeying the rules so they didn't go to hell, they were brilliantly alive, ready to share the message, ready to share the Good news of Jesus Christ.  They loved with all their heart and soul.  Whether is was St. Patrick, going back to Ireland to share the Gospel after escaping slavery there, or St. Therese, walking straight up to the Pope, pleading for his special permission to enter the convent at 14, or St. Francis, walking unarmed across enemy lines, into the palace of the Turkish Sultan in an attempt to share the love of Christ, or St. Cyril and Methodius, who developed an entire written language for the purpose of teaching the Gospel, Damien of Molokai, who willingly contracted Leprosy so that he could share Jesus with the Leper colonies near Hawaii.  Or one of the hundreds of other famous saints.  One of my favorite saints, who's story I'll tell one of these days, St. Jose Sanchez Del Rio, who at barely 12 years old, stared down men with machine guns and proudly proclaimed, "Viva Christo Rey, Long Live Christ the King." 

Our faith is a love story.  It's a story of a God who did something insane, something crazy, someone that only someone madly in love would ever do.  When we really see that, and see how he loves us…how could we do anything but love him in return?  He came, against all odds, to bring us the truth.   The saints are simply those who realize how he loved us and want to cling to him and share their love with everyone they meet.

So it's a simple question, do I know Jesus?  Am I in love with him? Is he the force that drives my life?  I find for myself, every time I read one of the stories of the saints, even the short ones, I'm always struck by their love.  I look at them and say, the love they have…that's what I want in my life.   That's the love I want to have.  If we look to Jesus, if we spend time with him, he will set our hearts on fire.   I'll never forget, just a few months ago, I was called for an emergency anointing of the sick.  As I arrived, the man was there, laid out on his bed, family gathered around him.   He just looked at me and asked, "Will you hear my confession?  I know my time is near, and I want to make sure there's nothing standing in the way for me."  After I heard his confession and anointed him, he looked up at me and said.  "All my life I've waited for this moment.  Soon, I'm finally going to meet my Jesus face to face."     All I could think to say was, "Sir, the person you are right now….is the person I want to become."