"I have come to set the earth on fire," Jesus tells us, at the beginning of today's Gospel (Lk 12: 49- 53). He goes on to talk about division, and to explain that His coming will result in dividing households and families-- mothers against daughters, sons against fathers, and all the rest. It is easy to see this as a set of statements that predict, even normalize, conflict and violence. The image of the earth on fire can easily bring to mind the horrors of war, and we've had more than a few terrible wars that seem, at least, to be based on religious division. Is that really what Jesus came to do-- to get us fighting with each other? Is that what He is saying in today's Gospel? How does that understanding of these passages fit with the overwhelmingly-non-violent tennor of most of what Jesus teaches? Let me suggest that there is another way to look at what Jesus is saying today, a way that makes more sense to me and is more consistent with Jesus' other teachings. I think Jesus is talking about division, to be sure, but not in the violent, negative, destructive way we might imagine. Division doesn't have to be a negative thing, at least within limits, just as fire can be a positive as well as a negative. When we assess fire, we have to ask ourselves what is burning and why. Is it a forest fire out of control in California, threatening lives and homes, or is it a fire in our furnace, or oven, providing us heat and cooking our food? Perhaps when Jesus talks of fire, He's talking of the fire of passion in our hearts. Perhaps when He says He came to set the world on fire, He means He wants to ignite the fire of love in us, wants to shake us out of our complacency and indifference. Maybe He means to get us "fired up." I suggest that because the opposite of love isn't hate. It is indifference, and indifference is the biggest challenge to the Church these days. There are so many people who just don't care. I'm guessing that isn't anything new-- if you look back at history you can see times and places where the Church was viewed by most people as simply irrelevant, as some view it now. Perhaps it is in that context that Jesus talks about wanting to set the earth burning. It is in many ways the same idea that Sr. Joan Chittester articulated yesterday in a column in the National Catholic Reporter entitled: "Anger: A virtue for our time, because silence isn't working." In it she advocates responding to the indignities of our time with some passion, rather than passivity. Maybe that is the fire that Jesus has in mind. If the fire that Jesus wants to ignite is the fire of passion, of love, of engagement, of feeling strongly about doing God's will, then we shouldn't be surprised by, or react negatively to, the idea of division. People who feel strongly about things often will not agree, and that's ok. It is only about things that don't matter to us that we're prepared to say: "Whatever" and shrug our shoulders. We don't do that when something really matters. No, division is ok, and if you look through the history of the Church you can see lots of it. The issues are how to we express that division and what do we do with it. If we turn division into conflict, and stop being engaged with those on the other side, that's a problem. I don't think Jesus is advocating that. But if we keep talking, and working to find a way to bridge our gaps-- large as they can be-- with love and trust, that's a very good thing. That's how we grow. It is also a problem if the division leads us to separate into warring factions. In his struggle with his Anglican faith, St. John Henry Newman came across this phrase from St. Augustine: "securus judicat orbis terrarum"-- which means "the secure judgment of the whole world." That phrase hit St. John like a train, changing his thinking about the Anglican Church versus the Roman Catholic Church, because it was the Roman Catholic Church that had stood the test of time, and had the judgment of the entire world-- it wasn't just a sect or a split-off or a group of followers of a person. Richard Neuhaus had a similar experience in his journey from the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church to the Roman Catholic Church in the 1990's. So what do we do when there is division, disagreement, differences in matters, large and small? St. Augustine argues that we hang in there, stay with the Church and wait-- wait for the Holy Spirit to clarify matters, as it will in due time. That's why the Churhc tries so hard not to break communion with people or groups. That's why, even after the changes of Vatican II and all the different practices that developed, only the Lefebvrists in France were thrown out of the Church. That's why in our own Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis we have the great variety of communities, from St. Agnes on the one hand to St. Joan of Arc on the other, all in the same communion with each other and with Rome. So let's let the fire of faith burn, and let's tolerate divisions, confident that in due time the Holy Spirit will tell us the proper path. After all, that's what makes us the Roman CatholicChurch, with "the secure judgment of the entire world."