Afire with the Spirit
Once upon a time, there was a young man who just always seemed to follow ways that no one ever predicted. Nobody ever knew what he would do. He had his way of viewing the world and viewing reality itself. His modes were odd, but they were attractive to others. In some, the attention he attracted was not just surface interest, but deep curiosity and connection. The movement that had begun by his influence had some strict features to it, so when an intrigued young woman sought audience with the free-spirited fellow, he refused. At length, he agreed, and she with her companion and he with his companion met at a local church. Come to think of it, a few other companions were about too. It was a picnic of sorts.
He got to talking about eternal things, and about the Glorious One, in such a sweet way, it defies description, here. His characterizations were so divinely captivating, marvelous, and lovely that the whole lot of them were quite caught up in the joy of the One described. In the meantime, the local people looked up in that direction and saw their beloved church and all the forest around it enveloped in flames. They rushed up the hill in hopes of saving something from the ferocious inferno. To their amazement, when they arrived, they found no forest on fire, no church ablaze, nothing amiss, whatsoever. They found only Francis, Clare, and the others in the beautiful church, St. Mary of the Angels.
Another storyteller told of how they found the folk in conversation, “sitting around that very humble table, rapt in God by contemplation and invested with power from on high.” What the panicked rescuers thought had been a material fire, was a spiritual fire. There was divine love burning in their souls and setting the whole area about with an aura of holiness. These simple servants of Christ were aglow with the fire of the Spirit.
We all have known that Francis of Assisi was a charismatic person, but when we look closer, we know that he is charismatic in every way. The word in Greek implies inundation with divine gifts, charisms of the Spirit. He surprised people who saw him impelled to follow his way. He was cooperating with the will and actions of the Holy Spirit. That is bound to lead to astounding actions and strong reactions.
May we all be so bold! Would it not be striking to alarm people who thought there was something wrong, and persist to let them discover that something is very right. Something of God can get through all our tamed beliefs and resistances and be shockingly wonderful. Even at the outpouring of the Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles, empowering the young Church at Pentecost, some of the onlookers thought, “What is wrong with these people? They must be drunk!” The Apostle tells them, no, there is nothing wrong, this is a God-thing. Come together for worship on Pentecost. Come to the special get-together that day. It will be so much more brilliant with you there.