Holy Arson

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim (Acts 2:3-4).

A couple of months ago, my husband and I were reunited with our daughter from whom we had been estranged for well over a year. The source of reconciliation, oddly enough, was something most people would have viewed as a very negative event - a fire that broke out in the high rise apartment where she lives. She was forced to evacuate for several days, with no offers of shelter or assistance from the landlord or any municipal entity. She had been out for breakfast that morning and was not allowed back into the building to retrieve any clothing or belongings. She had to pay for a hotel room and buy a couple of outfits so that she could be properly dressed for work the following Monday. God reached down into our lives with His fire – both literally and spiritually - to cauterize that wound that had separated us.

Popular wisdom says that those who play with fire get burned. But being burned, at least in a spiritual sense, is a good thing. Yes, fire burns and it hurts, but it also refines and purifies. The Scriptures liken the discipline of God to gold being refined in fire. In Hebrews 12:11, we are counseled to accept such discipline as a sign of our heavenly Father’s love. It is necessary for the work to which we are called by our baptism. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain; yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. God is an arsonist who wants to baptize us and purify us with His holy fire, and through us set the world ablaze (cf Lk. 12:49).

Through the grace given to us in baptism, we are equipped to evangelize in whatever and through whatever circumstances we find ourselves, but especially in the ordinary tasks of life. The example of life lived well and lived for God is a profound sermon indeed, and can serve to rekindle the fire in those who have lost their way. As the maxim says, “Preach the Gospel. And if necessary, use words.”

Sometimes it means delivering an unwelcome message. But then, Jesus never set out to be popular; He set out to save souls. Those forty days in the desert before beginning His public ministry were no picnic, but that period of discipline spent in silent prayer and fasting equipped Him for the mission of salvation for which He was sent. In that close communion with the Father, forged in the fire of the Spirit, Jesus went forth and preached not His own words, but those which He heard from the Father (cf. Jn. 14:10). We are told that when they heard His words, many of His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him (Jn. 6:66). Yet Jesus did not back away from the truth. Would that such a person might emerge from among the current cache of politicians running for the White House!

In the Book of Genesis, Issac asks his father, Abraham, Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the victim for the holocaust? (Gen. 22:7). The Lord asks us the same question. He has supplied the wood (baptism) and the fire (the Holy Spirit). It is up to us to decide if we will be victims of His love – to sacrifice ourselves and our own desires to His will, for His glory. Each of us is called to proclaim the Word, and set our own little piece of the world ablaze with the fire of truth as Jesus did, even if that brings dissension and conflict (cf. Lk. 12:49). We might emerge from the battle battered and bruised, but He promises us the victory. Yet He knows my way; if He proved me, I should come forth as gold (Job 23:10). Alleluia!

Prayer Request: For the grace to be courageous preachers of the Gospel.

Prayer: O Lord, our God, we thank You for purifying us in the fire of Your Holy Spirit. You send us forth to proclaim Your Word to a world that is broken and wounded. We pray that our lives may show forth Your healing love, and set tepid hearts ablaze with love for You and for souls. We make this prayer in the power of Him who is Love itself, Jesus our Lord. Amen.