Why Not Become All Flame?

A Homily for the 2nd Week of Advent

The season of Advent seems especially fitted for the art of storytelling. And some of my favorite stories come from the ancient tradition of desert spirituality. The great wisdom stories of the Abbas and Ammas, the desert Fathers and Mothers, the Mommas and Poppas, you could say, of the Christian spiritual tradition. And a particular favorite story of mine involves an encounter between Abba Lot and Abba Joseph. It goes like this:

“Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ Then Abba Joseph stood up and stretched out his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.'”

I think this story offers us a wonderful question to ponder this Advent season: “Why not become all flame?”

Listen carefully to the words of Abba Lot. He says several times: In as far as I can. Now to live a life of faith, to engage in the practice of faith, “in as far as I can” is not a bad thing. There is perhaps even some nobility to it. But none of us were built to live only “in as far as I can.” Rather, we, each one of us, exists as a Capacity for Ignition. If we live our faith only “in as far as we can” that’s okay, but we remain only a capacity, a potentiality unmet; a wick unlit. So why not “become all flame?”

Why do we hold back? Why do we fear becoming all flame? St. Peter tells us today in our second reading: “The elements will be dissolved by fire… the heavens will be dissolved in flames.” We hear those words and perhaps all we hear is Armageddon. But I would suggest what St. Peter is saying is, if we meet our vocation to “become all flame” we will have to face the dissolving of the elements in us that are not true to who we are in God’s eyes. The flames we fear will melt those spots and blemishes that keep us from being more fully the men and women God has created us to be. But that is only temporary. The gift that follows is quite spectacular. The gift of becoming All Flame transforms us into the kind of light and warmth our world most needs. We are by our nature a Capacity for Ignition. We fulfill our deepest Christian vocation when we burst into the kind of flame that gives comfort to God’s people… the kind of light and warmth the world most desperately needs.

But the story of course goes back long before Abba Lot and Abba Joseph met up in the desert. It goes back to a different desert where Moses hid himself, living a life “as far as he can” tending sheep; a capacity for ignition left unlit. Until he encounters the bush burning… on fire but not consumed, out of which God seeks to set him ablaze. The result? Moses lives out the truth of his mission and liberates the children of Israel.

The story goes back also to another desert, where a voice cries out “Prepare the way of the Lord.” First it is the fire of Isaiah, then it is the fire of St. John the Baptist. And we may ask: How do I best prepare the way of the Lord? Ignite! Catch Fire! Become all flame!

And the story goes back to a young woman, herself often described in the tradition as a new burning bush… a woman set ablaze by a “yes” to the seemingly impossible invitation from her God to bear the one who we will call Emmanuel: God with us as God has never been with us before. Mary, if she remained only a Capacity for Ignition, would have never fulfilled her human vocation to become the Mother of God!

For us then the story continues to this very day. Each of us a Capacity for Ignition. Each of us called to catch fire. Yes, it will have to burn away all that is in us that is not the man or woman God so richly loves and has brought into being. But that is temporary and worth the cost when the gift is to be so transformed as to bring the Divine Fire to life in the world. To become All Flame so as to give the kind of comfort to others that really matters; the warmth and light that will help stir them into flame as well.

Jesus once said: “I have come to set a fire on the earth. How I long for it to be kindled.” He is the Fire. We are the kindling. Why not become All Flame?