Baptism of fire

Every baptized person is a “work-in-progress.”  An on-going miracle of God, provided the baptized person listens and follows God, and not his/her ego.  Focusing less and less on the self, and focusing more and more on the other(s), what I can be and do for him/her/them.

The primary motive in doing good to the other(s) is not my own salvation   (I’m doing this to avoid ending up in hell), but to love my neighbor as my response in being loved by God.  And how do I know that God loves me?  Through habitual prayer in silence and solitude, when I am able to strongly feel the presence of God the Holy Spirit within me.  I become aware in my heart how much God loves me by having created me in the first place.  Not only that.  I become aware that  God created me out of love as a unique person.  In other words, I’m the only one of my kind in the whole, wide world.  Nobody else is exactly like me.  Moreover, this is also true of every other person outside of myself.  Each one is unique, and is created and loved by God in his/her uniqueness.

The Creator’s love for humanity was such that God the Son became one among us, to be our human example and role-model in how to love God and neighbor in our uniqueness as persons.  In connection with this, John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing a baptism of repentance, and the one baptized must produce good fruit, in word and action, as evidence of his/her baptism.  (Mt. 3:1-8).  But he then followed this by saying :  “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.  I am not worthy to carry his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (v.11)

But then, soon after that, Jesus himself came to John and asked to be baptized by him.  John was dumbfounded and said, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” (v. 14).  The answer of Jesus was clear and simple.  God the Son became one among us to be our human guide and example in how to live our lives in this world according to God’s plan for humanity.  Thus, when we are baptized, God the Holy Spirit dwells within us and becomes our constant companion, no less!  Through our gift of freewill, we can therefore choose to surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit within us and live our lives according to how God the Son lived his life after being baptized by John.  A life of love, compassion, justice, forgiveness, pain, suffering, joy, peace, all the way to our mortal death.  And like our human role model, God the Son, this will bring us home to eternal life with God the Father.

God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the all-loving Creator of the whole universe.  When we need God as father, He is there.  When we need Him as brother to guide our human ways, He is there.  When we need Him as the spiritual force within us, He is also there.  This is how much He loves us, His own creation.  But because of our gift of freewill, which raises us above all other created beings,  so many of us tend to turn our backs at times and focus instead on our egos.  At those times, our ego then becomes our god.  This can and does result in so much injustice, corruption, and violence in different forms.  Social injustice all over the world is one tragic result of egoism, a turning away from God the Holy Spirit within us.  But the ever-loving God never gives up on us.  Never.

Through God’s divine providence, our newly-elected Pope Francis now embraces this gigantic problem as one of his primary missions.  His heart is really there, as he expresses it in one of his recent statements:

“The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”  (From 10 Things Pope Francis Wants You to Know by John Allen).  Pope Francis decided not to live in the extravagant papal palace, and insists on a really simple lifestyle.  In his homily for his inaugural Mass last March 19, he emphasized that authentic power is service, especially service to the poorest, the weakest, and the least important.  His choice of his papal name, after St. Francis of Assisi, says it all.  “A Poor Church for the Poor.”  As authentic Christians after the heart of Christ, let us all support and collaborate with our Pope Francis in our own lives, in word and action.

Let me end with one other most crucial value that Pope Francis is leading us to live by:  Unity in Diversity.  Global Solidarity.  Over and above all the different institutionalized religions is the one and only Creator of the whole universe.  All of us are interconnected with one another, whatever is our race, culture, language, and religion.  Love and justice for all.

Pope Francis stated during the recent Catholic World Peace Day: “We all have a responsibility to act so that the world may be a community of brothers who respect each other, who accept their diversity and who take care of one another.”

The Creator’s baptism of fire.  Let us not stop working for it throughout our lifetime.  Amen.