Johannine Hours   April 1995  Luke 12,49-50

[The "Johannine hours" are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and
prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take
a moment to read the Bible passage with the short commentary and to
reflect on the questions which follow. Afterwards, a small group people
can meet to share what they have discovered and perhaps for a time of
prayer.]

The Bible often makes use of the image of fire to evoke the presence of
the holy God. A dynamic and mysterious, even frightening reality, that
sheds light, purifies, consumes and protects, fire expresses admirably
the different aspects of that quality which defines the being of God and
which we call holiness.

On the threshold of the Gospel, the Baptizer had announced that someone
would come to "baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (Luke 3,16). In
other words, this being would bring the fire of God's holiness to the
earth in order to transfigure it. In making this mission his own, Jesus
transforms it. He speaks of it as a future event, even though he is
already spreading the Good News of the Kingdom by his words and his
deeds.

Another Gospel passage sheds light on this "baptism" that Jesus has to
undergo rather than to perform. When his disciples want to have the
first places in the coming Kingdom, Jesus replies, "Can you...be
baptized with the baptism with which I will be baptized?" (Mark 10,38).
This is obviously an allusion to the suffering and the violent death
which Jesus realizes is to be his fate. By his words about fire, then,
Jesus announces in a veiled manner the meaning of his coming: by giving
his life to the end, he will enable the fire of God's holiness finally
to be kindled on the earth. If Jesus longs for the end of his earthly
life, that is not at all from a perverse will to suffer, but because
only in this way can he "sanctify" (Matt 6,9) or "glorify" (John
12,27-28) his Father, in other words fully reveal God's holiness. And
this prophecy finds its fulfilment on Pentecost day, when "tongues of
fire" (Acts 2,3) come down upon the disciples. In this way the
transfiguration of the world begins by means of consenting hearts.

*Where can I discover God's love as a fire that gives me warmth and
light? How can I let this fire burn in and around me?

*What consequences follow from my own baptism as a participation in the
death and resurrection of Christ?

[send a mail to listserv@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de with a line in the message
body GET TAIZE-L INFO for more information about the Johannine Hours and
the Taize Community.]


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