set the world on fire

In England last year, i saw a bonfire for the first time in my life. (Bonfire, as opposed to campfire or other types of deliberately-built outdoor fires.) Something about it so mesmerised me that i stood in front of it watching it for hours at a stretch, over two days. i took over 20 photos. (Yes, i know, sometimes i worry about me, too.) i loved the crackling, the smell of woodsmoke, the heat in my face, the patient spread of fire from branch to twig to leaf. And i remember thinking at the time that the whole thing felt like a sermon -- a 'fire sermon', as Eliot put it in The Waste Land. i felt that way even though i had no idea what this sermon was saying, to me or to anyone else.
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So it was a pleasant surprise when i discovered after coming back that one of the lesser-known Ignatian catchphrases is 'Go forth and set the world on fire'. Nice soundbite - the Jesuits seem to have a knack for those. Apparently, it's what Ignatius told Francis Xavier before FX set out on his missionary journey to Asia. The two good friends would never see each other again.
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So inspirational - that idea of passionate revolution. Less often thought of, by people who are not themselves passionate revolutionaries, is the cost of that setting afire, the things you give up along the way. i know i'm too liable to look at the sacrifice and the cost. And from time to time i need to remind myself to look up, see the bigger picture, remember the vision.
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