Catholic Fire-Water

Seeing that all contraries can coexist in Christ

Matthew 3:1-12  

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. 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.”   

          Few couples are as incompatible and contrary as the elements of “fire” and “water.” One cannot tolerate the other. Either the water will completely extinguish the fire, or the fire will burn so hot that the water will eventually evaporate and be no more. These two contraries cannot coexist. Let me demonstrate this rather obvious opposition between fire and water with a little humor.   

          A physicist, an engineer and a mathematician were all in a hotel sleeping when a fire broke out in their respective rooms. The physicist woke up, saw the fire, ran over to his desk, and began working out all sorts of fluid dynamics equations. After a couple of minutes, he threw down his pencil, got a graduated cylinder out of his suitcase, and measured out a precise amount of water. He threw it on the fire, extinguishing it, without a drop wasted, and went back to sleep. The engineer woke up, saw the fire, ran into the bathroom, turned on the faucet full-blast, flooding out the entire apartment, which put out the fire, and he went back to sleep. The mathematician woke up, saw the fire, ran over to his desk, began working through theorems, lemmas, hypotheses, you-name-it, and after a few minutes, put down his pencil triumphantly, and exclaimed, “I have proven that I can put out the fire!” He then went back to sleep. The moral is: if the water does not win, then the fire will; these contraries cannot coexist.   

          But when water and fire are sublimated – raised up and elevated and absorbed – and become Christian symbols, they lose all their animosity and ferocity; indeed, they transform from bitter foes into best friends. How does that happen? In the gospel today, these two elements of water and fire stand as symbols for the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus, respectively. Listen to how John himself puts this: “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 with fire.” In other words, what is still separate in John and Jesus – namely the baptism of water and the baptism of fire – will become united in Christian baptism when the fire of the Holy Spirit is called down up on the baptismal water, which then become “Catholic fire-water” and is poured over the baby’s head, and a new child of God is born. You see, every Christian is born of water and fire, the fire of the Holy Spirit. This is a small glimpse of the power of the Prince of Peace. In other words, Christ’s peace heals all divisions and all divorces and all difficulties: there are no contraries in Christ.  

          Isaiah in the first reading, employs lively examples to explain this same peaceful purpose of the Messiah, saying: “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb” (the wolf won’t eat lamb-chops anymore!), and “the leopard shall lie down with the kid” (that means the leopard won’t order fried goat off the menu!), and “the calf and the young lion shall browse together” (meaning no center-cut rib-eye for the lion!), and “the baby shall play by the cobra’s den” (even if that baby is Indiana Jones who was scared of snakes!). In other words, Jesus’ coming ushers in a new era of peace, where even two mortal enemies like fire and water live together in harmony, swimming hand-in-hand in the font of Christian baptism. You see, Christ’s peace re-organizes and re-orders things at the deepest levels of reality, where no physicist or engineer or even mathematician can fathom. But to the eyes of faith, it’s clear that there are no contraries in Christ. 

 

          My friends, Advent is the season to prepare for Christmas, the birthday of the Prince of Peace. And the best preparation is to foster peace where strife and discord abound: to tame the lions, the leopards and wolves that want to devour peace in our hearts. So, let me ask you: Is there peace in your conscience, or is there war? Have your sins and guilt been forgiven in the sacrament of confession? How long as it been since you’ve been to confession? Making a good confession is a far more important Advent activity than grabbing deals on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Are there other people with whom you are not at peace: a boss, a co-worker, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, a pastor?? How many of you are here because you don’t like the pastor at some other parish? How many people are not here because they don’t like this pastor? Make an effort this Advent to reconcile with that person. That’s the work of the Prince of Peace, because in Christ there are no contraries.  

          What about with the world – are you at war with the world, with God’s creation? Do we look at the world as its “masters” or as its “stewards and caretakers”? A couple of weeks ago, I visited Buddy Spradlin, who has a ranch in Oklahoma and enjoys hunting. But he explained that when the Native Americans hunted and killed the buffalo, they made use of every part of the animal. They lived in remarkable harmony with creation, never taking more than they needed, and always using whatever they took. My dad recently told me that the coconut tree – which is very plentiful in Kerala, my home state in India – is so versatile that every piece and every part of it can be used for something, not just the coconut. All Indians have an intense sense of stewardship of creation. Are we at peace with our planet, our “common home,” as Pope Francis calls it?  

          My friends, the coming of Christ can make even eternal enemies like fire and water into the best of friends. Let Jesus also bring peace to wherever there is war and waste in your life; let him tame the lions and leopards and wolves in you. 

 

          Praised be Jesus Christ!