The Holy Spirit as the Fire of love (homily)

Wynn Wagner is now an archbishop. He serves as the Regionary Bishop of the Southern Province USA, of the North American Old Catholic Church.

Today is the Sunday called Quinquagesima - which is a kind of make-shift Latin word that means the 50th day before Easter. It isn't exactly 50 days: next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, which bills itself as 40 days. So live hard as the 40th day before Easter comes only 3 days hence.

Last Tuesday was the 157 anniversary of the birth of Liberal Catholic co-founder, Archbishop Charles Leadbeater.

When you think of fire, do you think of destruction? All through the winter, you hear of people being killed by house fires. Fire changes things rapidly, that's for sure. Whatever jewelry you have was formed in fire. The metal in your car wouldn't be possible without the fires of a steel mill. The chalice we use at Mass was made in fire, too.

Any idea what fire's strongest property is? Any idea why someone would use such a weird combination of words as "Fire of Love"? I think it is because of the direction of a fire. Fire, if nothing else, wants to go upwards. If you have to be anywhere near a fire, the last place you want to be is above it. It is an almost single-minded thing about fire-the flames go up. Fire is focused on making its flames go upwards.

The symbol for fire in medieval alchemy is a triangle with the point at the top. Single-minded-"get in my way and die" says the flame.

So take that single-mindedness and apply it to love. It is the kind of love that has no "because". The Holy Spirit loves. You wouldn't say that the Holy Spirit loves because of something. She loves… period. There are no conditions. The love of the Holy Spirit is as focused as the flames of a fire.

It is the kind of love you feel for your children… your spouse… and hopefully yourself. There are no conditions.

It is the kind of love you feel for those who are less fortunate. If I ever hear someone picking on a kid because the kid is gay, transgender, or a racial minority-- heaven help that person. Rick has seen me in situations like that. He says it is like the fires of Zeus come calling… in a non-violent way, of course.

So what are we supposed to do about the fire of the Holy Spirit? Is there some kind of inside dope we can gleam? Are there marching orders in her Fire of Love?

I think we are supposed to do something. I don't think it is mere knowledge. Let me explain-

A couple of weeks ago, a journalist came to Dallas all the way from Massachusetts just to interview me. He is doing a documentary film on the beginnings of the internet, and I had a hand in some of that.

One piece of software that I wrote in the 1980s was so popular that people trying to download a release actually brought down AT&T's phone lines into Dallas. The software was up and running on 5 continents within a half hour of its release.

And I never made a penny from the software. I asked those who used the software to make a donation to some charity helping those with HIV and AIDS. Before it was over, the software raised between 2- and 3-million dollars for AIDS charities in North and South America, in Europe, Asia, and Australia. It was back before HIV was a popular charity.

That's a lot of money, I guess. I suppose that I could be a bit rich now if I had taken a different approach. Some days I wish I had. Most days, I know it went down the way is needed to.

And he asked me why it was all for charity. I'd like to propose my answer to you as a good response to the Holy Spirit as the Fire of Love… as a single-minded direction… what I said was this-

Tag. You're it. Pass it on.

And I'd like to say the same thing to you about the Fire of Love from the Holy Spirit--

Tag. You're it. Pass it on.