Luke 12:49-53

The Christian must not be lukewarm. The Book of Revelation tells us that this is the greatest danger for a Christian: not that he or she may say ‘no,' but that they may say a very lukewarm ‘yes.' Lukewarmness is, as the late Pope Benedict emphasised, what discredits Christianity most. Therefore it is one of the biggest problems facing the Catholic Church as a whole and therefore every Catholic diocese and every Catholic parish including our own. We need to confront it straight on.

The greatest way of all God has established to inflame us is at Mass. Whoever draws near Christ draws near the fire, Origen said in the third century. If that's true, then all the more Christ says to us, ‘Whoever receives me, receives the fire.' Whenever we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we ingest Fire. Christ has come to ignite that fire and how he wants each of us to become truly enkindled! St Catherine of Siena used to say in the 1300s, ‘If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze!

Mass is the place where Christ helps us to become who we should be. As we prepare to receive him today, we beg the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us now to pray for us that we may be enveloped by fire, always burn with love to the glory of God, and bring that flame of faith out to warm others hearts and fill our parish and the whole world with the fire of God's amazing love.