Today's Gospel in Art: I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!

Embrace, by The Pier Group, Set alight 29/08/14 © Alamy/Burning Man Festival, Black Rock, Nevada

Source: Christian Art,

Gospel of 21st October 2021 - Luke 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples: 'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!

'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.'

Reflection on the Sculptural Installation

Our artwork today is titled 'Embrace'. It was conceived in 2014 by The Pier Group, a collective of artists, engineers, and builders. It was part of the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. Two years ago we looked at another artwork from that festival (see https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/58 ) We see two large scale figures embracing. Before the piece was set ablaze during the festival, visitors could walk up an internal staircase in each of the heads. The chest of each figure held massive chandeliers in the shape of human hearts. Gathering at the top of each head, visitors would then look out at the visitors in the other head. The artist collective thus wanted to make people walk from the heart of the sculpture to the head, an internal pilgrimage… ending up looking at fellow human beings in the other head who went through the same albeit different experience. On 29 August 2014 the 60 feet high sculpture was set alight, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and reducing to ash. Just as a human Embrace is temporary, so was the sculpture.

And that is what Jesus is prompting us to do in today's reading: for us to be in touch with the eternal, rather than the temporal. The beauty of our passage today is the intensity of the image that Jesus paints for us. He wants to set off a spark in our souls that must become a blaze! He wants our baptism to be the holy spark of divine life that ignites us within, each day. That spark must become an ever increasing flame of love for Christ. Our prayer lives must be the fan and oxygen to feed those flames. We can feel Jesus' passion for His mission in today's reading. We pray that we may share in His fire and passion for our own mission too.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/966
Christian Art - www.christian.art/