The Fire of Divine Love

Gospel Reflection for Pentecost, June 8, 2025 - John 20:19-23

Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you.

And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.

He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.

When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. (John 20:19-23 DRA)

Today is the great Solemnity of Pentecost and the conclusion of the Easter season. Fifty days after Our Lord raised Himself from the dead in the new creation of His spiritualized humanity, the Church He began is completed in the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the apostles. As He did for the Israelites in their long desert sojourn, He appears today in the form of fire – not as a single pillar of flame but as individual tongues descending upon and illuminating Christ’s Mother and His closest disciples. As it is for us in the Sacrament of Confirmation, the grace of Baptism is sealed and brought to full fruition by the Holy Ghost, who conforms us to His divine love through the theological virtues, gifts and fruits of His indwelling power. This is the wondrous mission of the third Person of the Trinity which we celebrate today.

But, we might ask, what is the relevance of Pentecost for us today? The apostles received certain gratuitous graces, as they’re called, such as the gift of tongues which enabled them to communicate with the people in their own languages during their initial preaching. But as St. Paul said, only a few years after Pentecost, even though “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit”, nevertheless, “Are all workers of miracles? Have all the grace of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Cor 12:7, 30) Most Christians will never receive this gratuitous grace of tongues or the others related to it, which are given by God primarily for the building up of the Church in a specific situation. So, what does Pentecost mean for us today?

I think it could be argued that, of all the supernatural events in Scripture, the most immediately relevant for all of us in our everyday lives is Pentecost. We know the mysteries of Christ’s life, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension through the virtue of faith, as things which are unseen and known only “in a dark manner.” (1 Cor 13:12) We can participate in them through the Sacraments, but without our worthy reception they are inefficacious for us and their true nature remains unseen. We can hope for our ultimate salvation and the reclamation of Creation in the End Times, and be certain in our hope as guaranteed by divine authority, but this hope remains unseen for us. The Father, of course, is even more distant – not in Himself, since He, like the whole Trinity, is omnipresent, but for us due to our sin and incompleteness. He is in the same room with us but we are blinded to His presence.

But the Holy Ghost is different. He is the One who gives us even now “the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not” (Heb 11:1) which is the definition of faith, empowering us to believe with certainty what we cannot prove. He elevates our natural human faculties of reason and will with the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity), the infused virtues which order all our powers toward God, the “sevenfold gifts” (which you hopefully heard in the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus) which dispose us to follow His inclinations, filling our sails with His divine wind to lead us whithersoever He wants us to go, and finally His fruits which serve as the reward and perfect sweetness for the life of charity He gives to us.

Above all else, the Holy Ghost gives us the fire of charity which is His very self, enabling us to love God and our neighbor with the same divine love which unites the Persons of the Trinity in perfect harmony. This is the baptism which St. John the Baptist prophesied, saying that Christ would “baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” (Lk 3:16) It is also the fire which Christ spoke of when He said, “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Lk 12:49)

The fire of charity is divine and all-consuming, not the touchy-feel sentimentality and “togetherness” of the hippie “free love” culture. To quote St. Paul again, “For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:29) Hence why St. John the Baptist, right after his above-mentioned prophesy, states, “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

An Eastern Father (unfortunately I can’t remember who) once said that the souls in Heaven, Purgatory and Hell all experience the same thing: the fire of divine love. But for those in Hell, who cling obstinately to their sin, this fire forever burns, and for those in Purgatory, it cleanses them of their impurities like an ingot in a furnace. However, for the saints in Heaven, the fire of divine charity fills them with infinite light, warmth, wisdom and joy - with a participation in the divine life itself. It can do the same for us even in this life, since charity, unlike all the other virtues and graces, is already perfect:

Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed... We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Cor 13:8, 12-13)

St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers, was named (Domini canis, ‘dog of the Lord’) after a vision his mother had prior to his birth. She saw her child in the form of a dog carrying a torch in its mouth and setting the world ablaze with the fire of God’s love. His order has adhered to this vision for eight hundred years, correcting errors, teaching sure doctrine and serving all those most in need of the love of the Holy Ghost. This Pentecost, may we imitate the example of St. Dominic and pray for his intercession, so that we, like him, may seek to fulfill Our Lord’s wish that the whole Earth should be kindled with fire.