The Word: the fire that keeps us awake and makes us see!

Luke 12,35-38

Jesus told his disciples: “Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master find them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.

A little further on in this twelfth chapter of Saint Luke, you have this famous passage which you should know by heart. (Luke 12, 49) : “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” It is as if these two passages were holding hands or linking arms, they go together so well. What does this passage mean? Historically, simply know that we are on the path to Jerusalem and Jesus is teaching.

During the travelling retreat to the Holy Land, walking along the Horns of Hattin path to Magdala via Pidgeon valley, Roger and the group with him stopped many times. And each time, he made the most of it - perhaps you could say intentionally - to offer his teachings. And then we set off for a stretch and then rested, then walked a bit more and rested. Simply put this is a way of experiencing what Jesus and his disciples did. Jesus trailed along the path, he went from one village to the next. And between two villages separated by two or three kilometres, he found the time for two or three breaks. They stopped, they sat down or maybe stayed standing...they found themselves in a field, the pharisees were perhaps scattered here and there. And Jesus was with his disciples, he made the most of it to teach them. He saw lilies in the fields and spoke about it. He saw birds in the sky, a little bird that had fallen onto a rock. He stopped and said: “Do not be fooled, he has fallen into the hands of the Father of the Skies. You did not see him, but I have!” Jesus taught everywhere and anywhere!

This parable is the parable of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Where did he say it? No one knows. We can be sure it was somewhere in Galilee or Samaria. Maybe in a house where someone was hosting him? Nonetheless, there was an occasion. “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish for it!” Perhaps there was a gardener there burning some dried hay or bad herbs. Jesus used everything, he taught, he spoke.

Let’s re-read this parable. What is the important word in this little slice of the Gospel we’ve just read? Watch! Who thought of fire when they read the word “watch”? How do we watch? What did “watch” mean in the time of Jesus? What synonym does “watch” have? “Keep your lamps burning.” Ah okay, we’re talking about fire. Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  Here we are! What is the fire that keeps us awake? The little lamp we use to read the Word of God. As, in the time of Jesus, we didn’t light a little lamp for just anything.

Why Incarnation? Because Mary had “her lamp lit” and she read the prophets. Even though she did not know how to read, even without a lit lamp, she was waiting, she had heard tell, it remained in her heart, she honoured the words of the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Jeremy, the prophet Micah! When Lord? When Lord? Her lamp was lit: the desire... And when the lamp is lit, the Lord comes. It’s incredible and it takes us directly to what we now call eschatology. It is really the eschatology of the end of the world, by keeping faith and desire this bringing together of everything in the final Christ. Mankind needs to participate lucidly to advance and for the face of Christ to take on the face of the universe and renewed humanity.

Yes but, for today, there is the manifestation of grace: Christ who says, “It is Me!” and who shows us his pierced hands, the opening in his side. “Do not be afraid, it is Me, I am on the other side.” “The lamp is lit!” Make use of your Gospel, take “the lit lamp and be dressed and ready for service.” and within these words of the Gospel, the Lord will appear right in the middle of the night! And that is why it is adviced to have your rosary in your hand, even as you sleep at night: Mary is a lit lamp in the middle of the night because you have your rosary in your hand - and it is not about saying endless “Hail Mary” – comes a sudden realisation and you notice that the Lord is there, that he is present, that your life has a purpose: you are a being of him, he has just visited you. He will Serve you, pass by you while serving you ‘the dish’ of the Holy Spirit, and here you are with a new awareness of God, a new understanding of grace.

“Keep your lamp lit,” have your Gospel, come back to it constantly, read Saint Paul, read the Acts of the Apostles, read whatever you choose, a psalm... “Keep your lamp lit,” and the Lord will appear and he will serve you, he will renew the Holy Spirit, give you a light for the day to come. Go from the end of the world to the end of the world with “your lamp lit” which is a desire of...but while frequenting the Word. Live the little ends of the world without which we would not be able to live and which are the emergences of Jesus who shows the text as if he was showing the end of your nose to say: “It’s Me who is with you!”

Jesus came to light this fire, the candle of Pentecost but it is to light-up the word of God so that we can find its presence in the sacrament of the Word! Understand that we need incredible worship of the Word of God. Often we light up, we read a phrase and the Lord appears, perhaps not in the moment...in the middle of the night, or two hours later; suddenly your receive a profound intelligence, you penetrate the text and that, that is the return of the Lord. He comes back multiple times providing we keep “the lamp lit” and we dedicate ourselves to reading.

If we do not have a lamp, if we are sleeping, he may be knocking on the door, but we will not hear him! But if our lamp is lit, then the Lord will serve. “Sit down” and he will give us a present of light, an extra piece of knowledge of the Holy Spirit, and he will do this every day and several times a day.

Florin Callerand
20 October 1992

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon