Filled with Holy Spirit and Fire

In today’s Gospel the verse that jumped off the page for me was, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  John’s Baptism was for persons acknowledging their sinfulness and for the remission of their sins, the difference with the Baptism that would be commanded by Christ, is that it was not only for the remission of sins, but one would also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I take it most of us here, besides any catechumens or visitors were baptized and many of us were more than likely baptized as infants, again except for those who converted later in life.  This beautiful gift that John speaks of and that Jesus eventually commands, “Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” has been given to us.  It began with the Incarnation.

The Incarnation of Christ is that moment when Mary said, “yes,” to the Angel and she conceived Jesus in her womb.  The Son of God took on flesh.  This is a profound theological statement, one that has been studied, examined, written about, and reflected on for the last 2,000 years.  The Incarnation and eventually the birth of Christ has incredible meaning, that God would come close to us.  In that coming close to us He shares everything with us.  In our Baptism we in a very deep and intimate way are united to Christ’s Passion on the Cross as well as His Resurrection.  We die and we rise with Him that is the gift that is given to us through the Holy Spirit.  There is no greater intimacy that a person can share with another; we share death and life with our Lord.  The only thing that would come close or resemble this profound intimacy is marriage.

We become one flesh with our Lord, for as St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”  Baptism is our marriage (so to speak) to the Trinity, the One God.  So, please think for a moment, if Jesus has given us this gift and this fire as John the Baptist says then are we not moved by knowing that Jesus reaches out to me?  Jesus comes close and remains close no matter what.  And yet, what about this fire?  My coaches would say to us, “You got to have fire in your belly!”  They were basically telling us that you have to have a passion for what you were doing, a motivational drive that went beyond just simply winning and losing, but a love for the game.  God has lit this fire in us, He has put the fire in our bellies.  The question becomes, “Do you feel it?”

The drive, the motivation, the desire was given to us when the Spirit filled us and we became born again and made new in Baptism.  My goodness, what a gift!  I pray that as we have been moving through Advent that you are realizing this gift more and more, the gift that is inside of you, that gift my friends is none other than our Lord Himself and there is no Christmas present in the world that can be its equal.  My dear friends, God has come close to us more so than we could possibly ever imagine.  God bless you and keep that fire burning!