Skip to main content

The Fire

 I will never be convicted of being a great prayer warrior, but I also truly do speak with the Holy Spirit, and He speaks with me. One thing you come to realize is that you can go deeper than the plain words of Scripture, but nothing true will ever be said without them. So there I was, reading and meditating on Luke 24, the part where the two disciples walked along the road to Emmaus. Remember how sad they were? Then Jesus comes up, playing a little coy, and asks them what they were talking about. The rough equivalent of a response was, "What, have you been living under a rock?" (Well, not exactly, but that's funny.) So they're explaining to Our Lord what he's allegedly missed--quite amusing, really--and then he tells them they don't get it. "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them all the Scriptures concerning himself." We all know that was a sermon to end them all. Remember how they reacted? "Did our hearts not burn within us, while he talked to us on the road?"

I got around to saying that the great gift of this Age of the Holy Spirit is that our hearts burn, but we need not be sad first. That is, they didn't quite believe it, when he told them he must suffer, die, and be raised again. They were shaken out of a certain disbelief, when he revealed himself in the breaking of the bread. This seemed to happen a lot: unbelief, interrupted by delirious joy. Then I remembered the burning bush: aflame, but not consumed. He seemed to say that there need not be sadness now, at least in a certain way. Sadness and tragedy are so human, so common. Those things cannot touch the joy which comes from God, even so. A small paraphrase from Isaiah 43 says, "When you walk through the fire, you'll not be burned. And the flames will not consume you." I realized this was actually about the Holy Spirit. I am like the burning bush: on fire, but not consumed. It's a bold thing, to ask God to light you on fire, so to speak.

This wasn't exactly how I thought calling down fire from Heaven would go, but that's exactly what it is. We have met the enemy, and they are us. Maybe we are purged, purified, but still not destroyed. It will never be easy to surrender everything to God. Carrie Underwood can sing about it, but in a certain sense, Jesus taking the wheel is only putative, until we know the Spirit's power.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Thoughts On The Harrison Butker Commencement Speech

Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that. Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does. Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point. Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Alyse

 Today, you’re 35. Or at least you would be, in this place. You probably know this, but we’re OK. Not great, but OK. We know you wouldn’t want us moping around and weeping all the time. We try not to. Actually, I guess part of the problem is that you didn’t know how much we loved you. And that you didn’t know how to love yourself. I hope you have gotten to Love by now. Not a place, but fills everything in every way. I’m not Him, but he probably said, “Dear daughter/sister, you have been terribly hard on yourself. Rest now, and be at peace.” Anyway, teaching is going well, and I tell the kids all about you. They all say you are pretty. I usually can keep the boys from saying something gross for a few seconds. Mom and I are going to the game tonight. And like 6 more times, before I go back to South Carolina. I have seen Nicky twice, but I myself haven’t seen your younger kids. Bob took pictures of the day we said goodbye, and we did a family picture at the Abbey. I literally almost a...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p...
Post a Comment
Read more