That Unquenchable Fire

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke:

The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”

Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.

The people asked John what they ought to do.

They were no doubt frightened. John had just bawled them out in the most spectacular fashion. A moment ago he called them a brood of vipers, and asked who warned them to flee the coming wrath. He told them not to take comfort in their ancestry and warned of unquenchable fire. So his disciples begged him to tell them what they ought to do.

Perhaps they were expecting something complicated and outlandish.

What do you expect when you ask a prophet to give you a penance? A hair shirt? A flagellation? Reading a thousand sacred texts? Crawling to the nearest pilgrimage site on your knees? What do you expect if the prophet who’s just been ranting at you is a wild man who dresses in camel’s hair and eats insects out in the desert? What could possibly be penance enough to quench the unquenchable fire?

What John tells them to do is terribly simple.

People who have two cloaks should give one away, so everyone gets a covering to keep them warm. People with extra food should give a meal to someone who has nothing. Tax collectors should stop taking more than they have to. Soldiers, the government’s designated tools of murder and pillage, shouldn’t take what isn’t theirs and should leave people alone.

That’s all there is to it.

And this is the hardest thing.

We all enjoy drama and brouhaha. We like to do distracting things in a showy way. We’d love to dive right into a complicated penance. But the way of the Lord is simple. The way of the Lord is to stop being greedy and just help one another, as you’re able, in your own station in life, in the ways you already can. Not to wait for a perfect world to be perfect in, but to do imperfect good here in the world that you have. Not to wait until you have the resources to end poverty, but to humbly help your poor neighbor with the resources you have. Not, for most of us, to run around the desert wearing camel hair and eating insects. But to take the things we already have to wear and eat, and put them to good use for others.

To stop demanding of others more than is fair, even if we’re legally entitled to take it, and even if people in authority won’t mind if we do.

To stop taking what isn’t ours when we might get away with it. To leave oppressed people alone when we might get away with more oppression.

To do the good we can, and to avoid the evil we have the opportunity to do.

It’s simple as that.

There is another one coming, whom not even John is worthy to serve, and the rest of us even less so. That One will be here soon. When that One comes, He will baptize you with more than water. He will baptize with the fire from Heaven, and you will be forever changed. You will burn with the fiery thirst for righteousness, the thirst that is unquenchable in this world. You will burn to do everything you can with every resource you have, and to avoid hurting others however you’re able. That burning will drive you to the strangest places, until you are gathered into a better place.

And what John prophesied came to pass.

The One who was greater than John appeared, and came to John for baptism. John insisted it wasn’t right. He ought to be baptized by Christ, and not Christ by John. It seems that even John wanted something more extraordinary than to do what was his to do. But Jesus insisted. He went down into the water. When He came out, the clouds were open and the Dove appeared, and the Father said He was well pleased. The fire descended on the earth, and it is still descending.

You can still catch the fire, if you choose.

Whoever has ears, let him hear.

Image via Pixabay

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.
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