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Reflection for November 26, 2006

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Fire

While it has been a mild autumn so far, there was a sufficient chill in the air last weekend to make one look purposefully at the fireplace and think about whether one's supply of logs was seasoned enough to cheer up the living room one of these nights. Of course, in former times stacking logs in a fireplace was done for more practical reasons than cheering people up. In the absence of modern gas, oil and electricity actual fire was what kept a home habitable during the winter. It was also the chief source of light, distributed as it was around the house in candles and chandeliers - so that even if you were on the outside looking in, the glow of candles and a fireplace brightened your brow and warmed your heart - which is one reason why I like to walk around the old streets of Petaluma on a December evening where Christmas tree lights flicker in the windows - reminding me of what? Of Christ, the light of the world who came to cast fire upon the earth, hoping as the old song used to say, "to start a flame in your heart".

Fire has always been a metaphor favored by biblical and other writers. It is celebrated as a purging element as when John the Baptist uses it to motivate the Pharisees to change their attitude. It's used also as an illuminating element as when Jesus says, "You are the light of the world . . . You don't light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket. You put it on a lamp stand where it can give light to all in the house." Indeed, the New Testament speaks of Christ himself as a light shining in the darkness and as a man of fire who appears in John's Apocalypse standing among seven lamps of gold, his eyes aglow like fire, his feet gleaming like brass refined in a furnace, his face brilliant as the sun in full strength. And what is this fire that permeates Christ? The fire of love. Fire as a benign metaphor represents that love we sometimes feel can melt our hearts.

As such, fire is something the naughty people in our storybooks try to diminish. Look at Ebenezer Scrooge. He's so cheap his place of business is like a refrigerator. His clerk Bob Cratchit has only a candle to warm his fingers. Even in his own lodgings Scrooge "maintained a very low fire from which he could extract a minimum of heat." As a result, "He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree a Christmas." On the other hand, people who have had deep mystical contact with the presence of God resort to fire to describe what happened, as in the case of Blaise Pascal, the most brilliant mathematician of his time. Pinned close to his heart after his death were found these ecstatic words: "The year of Grace 1654. Monday, the 23rd of November, . . From about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight. FIRE. . . . heartfelt joy. God of Jesus Christ, Thy God shall be my God."

So as you contemplate using your fireplace as Christmas approaches and even light decorative candles to warm and illuminate your heart as well as your home, keep in mind the long ago experience of another mystic, the Jesuit Robert Southwell, who prior to his execution in the days of the first Queen Elizabeth wrote: As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow, / Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; / And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, / A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear; /, . . "Alas," quoth he, " but newly born in fiery heats I fry, / Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I! / My faultless breast the Furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns, / Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns; / The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls, / For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good, / So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood." With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away, / And straight I call-ed unto mind - that it was Christmas day.

-- Geoff Wood