Baptism of Spirit and fire

John the Baptist himself clearly distinguished the baptism of repentance through water and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that Jesus received and will give to those who ask for it. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk. 3:16). While the human, adult Jesus was praying, God the Holy Spirit descended upon him and was his constant companion for the rest of his human life. The human-divine Jesus. He experienced the Father’s unconditional love that was the source of all that he did and all that he taught. He shared this limitless, compassionate love with all, with anyone and everyone. His love was like fire that brought light and warmth, and not like water that was cold and stagnant.

He began by going to the desert for 40 days, to pray in silence and solitude. It was there that he experienced the triple temptation of the devil, but the latter failed and gave up.

Jesus then moved on to his life of compassion, healing, teaching God’s ways, inviting disciples to follow him through the rejections and persecutions of Satan’s followers, all the way to his crucifixion and death. All this was for the sake of love, the primal and only meaning of human life. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk. 10:27).

His compassionate healing simply melts my heart. The cure of the demoniac, the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, the leper, the paralytic, the centurion’s slave, Jairus’ daughter, the woman with a hemorrhage, and raising to life again the widow’s son. There were many others besides this.

After praying overnight in the mountain in solitude, he began to call those who would give their lives to be his disciples. First, the 12, then the 72, and others, all the way to our own times! And the condition of discipleship? “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” (Lk. 9:23-25).

Indeed, the teachings of Christ, which he lived and died for, are tough, to say the least. But they are not only sanctifying. They are doable. One such teaching is to love our enemies. This is not only tough to follow. It even seems to be unreasonable, irrational, inhuman. “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Lk. 6:27-28). As he was hanging on the cross, Christ is quoted to have said: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). All the way to the end, Christ’s heart was overflowing with unconditional love.

How do we apply all this to ourselves if we claim that we, too, are baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire as Jesus was? First of all, most if not all of us were baptized when we were infants, unaware of God’s presence and not able yet to think, decide, much less pray. It was more like the baptism of water that John the Baptist did for so many. And he himself accepted that what he was doing was simply a prelude to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that was to come.

Let us be humbly aware as adults in today’s world that we need to be re-baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire over and over again, and each time must be preceded by our being in prayerful silence and solitude, lovingly aware of God’s presence in our hearts.

Throughout the past many years, before my recent retirement due to old age and physical weakness, I used to conduct spiritual retreats for a weekend, or for five or eight days, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The retreatants were either single lay men or women, married couples, seminarians, nuns, or priests. I have witnessed so many times how retreatants were baptized and re-baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit and fire. I have not seen any so-called visions, but the results and effects in their lives after the retreat are tangible and real.

I will never forget a conflicted couple who were pressured by their concerned friends to go through a weekend retreat. They both wanted to separate, but they tolerated each other for the sake of their growing children. And so they cooperated during the retreat, gave their human best, and lo and behold, Christ re-baptized them with the Holy Spirit and fire. Their love for each other that was buried under a heap of garbage revived. No less than a miracle.

Lastly but not least is my personal experience. Human and sinner that I am, the ever-loving and forgiving Christ re-baptizes me when the need comes, which in faith I know he will continue to give me till the end of my life.

To conclude: Human as we are, with all our human frailties, imperfections, and sinfulness, we need to learn how to really pray and be re-baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, not just once, but continually throughout our lives.

Our profound gratitude to Christ for his unconditional love for all of us. Amen.