“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”

The words of Jesus in this Gospel are both consoling and unsettling. He speaks of a fire that must blaze across the earth—a fire that purifies, transforms, and awakens. This is not a comfortable flame; it is the consuming love of God that demands a response. It is a fire that does not allow mediocrity.

Carmelite spirituality teaches us that this fire begins in the silence of prayer. In solitude, the heart becomes the hearth where God’s love is kindled. But once ignited, it cannot be contained. It pushes the soul outward in mission, even at the cost of misunderstanding or division. The one who lets this fire take hold will not remain the same—family ties, personal plans, and even one’s sense of self are reshaped by the Gospel’s radical call.

Blessed Francisco Palau y Quer knew this fire intimately. Forced into exile and misunderstood even within the Church he loved, he discovered in prayer that the flame of Christ’s love was stronger than rejection or isolation. For him, solitude was never emptiness; it was communion. He wrote: “Love is a fire that unites us with God, with our neighbor, and with the Church. Where there is no love, there is death.”

Palau’s mystical experience was marked by a vision of the Church as both Bride and Body of Christ. This vision set his heart ablaze and gave meaning to his struggles. To love the Church meant to embrace her wounds—found in the poor, the sick, the marginalized, and the sinners. His mission flowed from the fire of contemplation: to stand with the Church in her suffering and to rekindle in others the flame of divine love.

For us today, the words of Jesus challenge complacency. Do we allow His fire to burn away our attachments, fears, and compromises? Or do we prefer a lukewarm discipleship that avoids division and cost? The Carmelite path, as lived by Palau, invites us to dwell in our “inner cell,” to let God ignite our hearts in prayer, and then to carry that fire outward—to the streets, the slums, the places where the Church still bleeds.

The fire Jesus came to bring is already among us. It is the Spirit dwelling within, urging us to love more deeply and live more courageously. May we, like Francisco Palau, become hearts consumed by that flame, so that the world may be set ablaze with the love of Christ.