Jesus tells disciples, “I have come to light a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze.”
Jesus lights a fire of love, as do disciples. Such love blazes wild, spreading to Samaritans, those who are prostitutes, tax collectors, poor, ill, wayward, and so many more. Love challenges imperialists, of Rome, throughout history, and those of this U.S. Empire. Empires and the imperialists who support them control existence as a jail and make life hellish. Imperialists will tolerate prisoners having slight differences so long as they do not challenge their rule. To tolerate is generally defined as putting up with something or somebody unpleasant. The word tolerate originates in the permission granted by a sovereign to recognize the right of private judgments in matters of public worship. Old Testament War Lords such as Moses and David were not tolerant. They did not grant such permission. Having invented a mirror-image deity, Yahweh, they demanded uniformity of worship – a disordered love – only upwards, to them as rulers. People controlled by these rulers found it difficult to love – prostitutes, tax collectors, those who are poor, ill, wayward, and others. Constantine is regarded as advancing civilization through his Edict of Milan. Though a War Lord like the intolerant Moses and David, Constantine’s Edict granted toleration for the private worship of alternative deities in public. However, since then humanity has not been free to love – Muslims, gays, asylum seekers, those who are poor, ill, wayward, and others. It is no surprise then to find people who worship / love modern day intolerant rulers. Donald Trump’s fans say they love him and his cohort deities. MAGA are forcing humanity backwards to a uniformity of worship – disordered love. They are producing a hellish existence, lacking toleration, and certainly lacking a blaze of love. Perhaps there are people who love Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders for calling us to our more civilized selves. We may experience greater toleration but again, no blaze of love. Whichever group we follow, we are rather like Orpheus who loves Eurydice though she has died and dwells in Hades. Orpheus desires to bring his love back to life. He journeys to Hades to woo the ruling Gods of hell believing he can wrestle love, Eurydice, from their deadly domain. But the gods are in control in that domain. No matter the courage or leadership of Orpheus, love cannot be brought forth from their domain. For the Gods of rule know not love. When we rule, we are not ablaze with love but frozen with control. We are cold and detached, having removed ourselves from that which is wild – the blaze of love. It is perhaps the reason Dante writes of hell not as a blaze but as a glacier, “underneath my feet a lake, with frozen surface… Blue pinch’d and shrin’d in ice… that emperor, who sways the realm of sorrow, is mid breast in ice.” As we tolerate rulers and empire’s unloving ice-cold conditions, we are not ablaze. But being ablaze is our mission. We therefore do not enter hell to take love back. Rather, we enter hell to bring to that domain the blaze of love.
Some know the frozen hellish conditions of empire here in this world. In particular, in its jails. Jail is crafted as hellish by ice-cold gods of rule. Yet, some bring to that domain a blaze of love. They are the lovers like Tanya Erzen in God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Prison Ministries in the Age of Mass Incarceration. She and others are undoing jail projects like Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship. It did not so much bring a blaze of love in Christ as it brought a citizen’s obedience to rulers being trained to tolerate empire’s hellish control. The blaze of love is also brought by those who belong to Bethany Ministry and go into the jails to love those imprisoned. The blaze of love is brought by Shameka Parrish Wright and others who belong to The Bail Project, one of many groups overturning the cash bail injustice system. We need more such people entering the hell of empire’s ice-cold prisons to bring to that domain the blaze of love.
Prayer: Spirit, in you we burn with a blaze of love.
Question: What is my fire of love and who are the ice-cold rulers I am called to melt?
August 14, 2022 Gospel Luke 12:49-53 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time