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JANUARY 19
CAN’T START A FIRE WITHOUT A SPARK
"I baptize you with water for repentance,” says John the Baptist. “But after
me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy
to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Mt 3:11)
Baptism is often thought of as a “washing away” of our sins. But it is so
much more. It is Spirit and fire, specifically because He was baptized.
And, sharing our human nature, He was One of us. We don’t “imitate”
Christ’s baptism; we participate in it. And we don’t just get “washed”; we
are buried and re-born to new life, in His Spirit and His fire.
However, just as Jesus was baptized at the very beginning of His public
mission, so is our baptism just the beginning. I did, indeed, receive the
gift of life in the Holy Spirit, as well as the gift of His “fire,” like a spark,
in my heart, at baptism. But this “fire,” which is often but a spark, needs
to be constantly tended to and rekindled when necessary. A daily “refocusing,”–that
is, daily “repentance,” does this, when I take a bit of time
for it, in prayer, contemplation, and self-examination. Let me remember
this gift of Spirit, and fire, which I carry around in my heart, so that I tend
to it on a daily basis.
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