Today’s readings sound fierce — and they are.
St Paul speaks of slavery and freedom.
Jesus speaks of fire and division.
These are not gentle words — but they are freeing ones.

They remind us that Christianity isn’t a comfort blanket.
It’s a conversion.
It’s not about staying safe; it’s about becoming holy.

St Paul says bluntly:

“Once you were slaves to sin… but now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.”

The word “slave” shocks us.
But Paul uses it deliberately.
He’s saying: everyone serves something.
You will either serve sin or you will serve Christ —
but you can’t serve no one.

The world says, “I’m free; I do what I want.”
Paul says, “That’s not freedom — that’s just another chain.”

Sin promises freedom and delivers addiction.
Grace looks like surrender and delivers liberty.
That’s the great reversal of the Gospel.

True freedom isn’t doing what you please.
It’s being able to do what is right.
And that power only comes from grace.

So Paul says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sin pays a wage — and it’s always death.
Grace gives a gift — and it’s always life.
Every choice moves us toward one or the other.

Then Jesus says something startling:

“I came to bring fire to the earth — and how I wish it were blazing already!”

That’s not destruction; that’s purification.
The fire Jesus brings is the fire of the Holy Spirit —
the flame that burns away sin and leaves the soul shining.

When He says, “I have a baptism to undergo,”
He means the Cross —
the flood of suffering through which that fire will be unleashed.

Calvary is the spark.
Pentecost is the blaze.
And every time a heart turns back to God,
the flame spreads again.

The saints were men and women set on fire —
Ignatius, Francis, Teresa — hearts burning with divine love.
They didn’t live cautious lives.
They burned up for God.

Jesus adds:

“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, but rather division.”

He doesn’t mean violence.
He means decision.
The peace of Christ divides truth from lies,
light from darkness,
faith from indifference.

When someone truly follows Christ,
it exposes what is false — even within families, even within ourselves.
That’s the sword of the Gospel:
not hatred, but clarity.

And clarity costs.
To follow Christ means sometimes walking against the crowd.
But better division with truth than unity in falsehood.
Peace at any price isn’t peace — it’s surrender.

There are two fires in life:
the fire that destroys, and the fire that purifies.
Sin is the first; grace is the second.

When we confess, when we pray, when we love,
we invite the fire of the Spirit to cleanse what’s cold and stubborn in us.
God’s goal isn’t to make us comfortable —
it’s to make us combustible with holiness.

As the mystics said,
the soul on fire with charity fears nothing,
because it already belongs to heaven.

At this altar, the fire still burns.
Here the sacrifice of Calvary is made present again —
not as destruction, but as redemption.
The flame of the Holy Spirit descends upon bread and wine,
and they become the Body and Blood of Christ.

The same Spirit that burned in Christ now burns in us.
The Mass is where the world’s coldness meets God’s fire.
And if we receive Him with open hearts,
that fire spreads beyond these walls.

So today, let’s hear both Paul and Christ:
Be set free from sin — and be set on fire for God.
Don’t fear the flame that purifies;
fear the lukewarmness that dulls the soul.

Christ didn’t come to make life easy —
He came to make it eternal.
And the road to eternity is lit by fire.