Fire and water of the Holy Spirit
In our Christians lives!
Acts 2:1-11; 1Corinthians 12, 3-7.12-13; John 20, 19-23
At the beginning of the book of Genesis when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. Everything was engulfed in total darkness and the Spirit of God was moving over the water (Genesis 1: 1-2). At that time God had just started to create the universe and there was nothing except water, so water was an image of the Spirit’s life. Indeed, water is very necessary for any creature’s life including plants, animals and people. We also know that the Holy Spirit was with the disciples at the Pentecost when he looks the form of fire. It was a fire that did not burn them even though the fire rested on them as we have just heard in the first reading today. An image of fire was that fire of love, fire of enthusiasm, fire of peace and fire of strength, fire of tongues… (Acts 2:3-4)
Why should I like to share with you my thoughts about water and fire of the Holy Spirit in our Christians lives? I am happy to share it with you because it is very necessary and very useful for us especially in this year, the year of faith. Water is an image of living life and without water all creatures might die. On the other hand, if the creatures have ‘too much water’ that is also not good. For example, if the trees receive too much water they will bear leaves but not fruits. In the New Testament one day Jesus told a parable of the fig tree to people and He explained that He wanted to cut it down because it was not producing fruit. (Luke 13:6-9)
The image of a fig tree which did not produce fruit helps us link to images of the disciples. When Jesus was arrested they were living but they did not bear fruit of witnesses, fruit of preaching and fruit of believing… However, when they received the fire of the Holy Spirit, it transformed their lives completely. They bore much fruit of peace, fruit of preaching, fruit of joy as Jesus said to the disciples in the Gospel today (John 20:21). Later on, St. Peter and some other disciples spoke fearlessly to the Pharisees; they said: ‘Obedience to God comes before obedience to men.’ (Acts 5:29) Why did St. Peter and the other disciples speak out so plainly? It was because they were full of the power of the Holy Spirit so they were not scared of anything. They were happy to witness Jesus who was dead but risen again and who is now living forever. They did not worry about their lives even though they were arrested by the Pharisees and they also were happy to die for God, so at the end of their lives they became heroes of Jesus Christ.
Similarly, we really need both the water and fire of the Holy Spirit because sometimes we are living but we do not bear much fruit as the fig tree in the parable. Jesus was not happy when he recognized that the fig tree had no fruit. Jesus was not happy when Peter denied witnessing Him to a woman when He was arrested so Jesus turned and looked at St. Peter (Luke 22:54-62). Jesus was unhappy when the disciples argued with each other so He taught them humility and mutual respect (Mark 9:33-37). According to St. Paul the fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23b). In addition, St. Francis understood the gifts of the Holy Spirit and referred to water as sister and fire as brother in The Canticle of the Sun.
May God help us to receive the water and fire of the Holy Spirit on the Feast day of the Pentecost so that like the disciples we will bear much fruit and act as witnesses to God bringing peace and happiness to others. We should imitate St. Francis of Assisi and acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is our ‘brother and sister’ in the family of God as St. Paul said to the Corinthians in the second reading. We should also listen to St. Paul to bring the joy and kindness and goodness of the Holy Spirit to our families and our communities too. If we do all these things above we might bear much fruit which may be everlasting. May God bless every-one of us and all those we love and cherish.
Fr. Peter Thanh Ha
