Homily: August 8 2016 - St. Dominic - Setting the world on fire

St. Dominic is the Founder of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominican Friars, and lived around the same time period as Francis and Clare. Dominic was born in Spain around 1170 old noble Castillian family. Supported by a priest uncle, he was well educated, and distinguished himself for his interest in the study of Sacred Scripture and for his love of the poor.

After being ordained a priest, Dominic joined his bishop on a diplomatic mission to Northern Europe. In his travels, Dominic became aware of two enormous challenges for the Church of his time: the existence of people who were unevangelized in Northern Europe, and a terrible schism which undermined Christian life in the south of France, where the activity of the heretical Albigensians was distancing people from the truth of the faith.

The Albigensians believed the created material world was evil. They refused marriage and denied that God truly became man in Christ, they denied the sacraments because they refused to believe that the divine would come so close to us. They denied, too, the resurrection, believing material bodies to be evil.

When Dominic brought these challenges to the pope’s attention, the pope personally asked Dominic to devote himself to preaching to the Albigensians.  By spreading the devotion of the rosary and the truth of the Gospel, Dominic must have been successful…have you met any Albigensians lately?
In college seminary, I studied one semester in Rome, at the Dominican run Angelicum University.  There you will find many paintings of Dominic. And in many of them, Dominic is often garbed in his white Dominican habit, with a black cape and walking stick, and next to him is often a little dog carrying a torch.

If you take the latin word ‘Dominicane’ you get the word – Domine, which means Lord, and Cane, which means Dog, as in the world ‘canine’. So the Dominicans are the ‘Hounds of the Lord’.

There is a story that while his mother was pregnant with Dominic, she dreamt that a dog leapt from her womb and began to set the world on fire.

This great saint reminds us that in the heart of the Church, in the heart of every Christian, a missionary fire must always burn. Jesus himself said, “I have come to set the world on fire, how I wish it were already blazing.” Jesus gave this mission to the Church: to set hearts on fire with love of God.  We are not to be mediocre or lukewarm in our faith. The faith is to impel us out of our homes, to bring the light and fire of the truth of the Gospel to others. To bring light to those who are confused, to bring warmth to those who are lonely, to bring the spark of life to those who are dead in sin.

Dominic gathered around himself well educated, zealous preachers who would travel on foot preaching God’s mercy, God’s love for man, beauty, truth. 800 years later they continue to attract many vocations and remind us all of our need to draw close to the flame of truth and to spread that same fire for the glory of God and salvation of souls.