Shane Hyland, Leader of School Evangelisation at St Joseph’s Regional College reads today from the Gospel of Luke (12: 49-53) in which Jesus tells his disciples, ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!”

‘I have come to bring fire to the earth’.

For Shane, this saying used to bring to mind images of fire and brimstone falling from heaven punishing all of us who have done wrong – that is until he understood the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives.

Sometimes, says Shane, we can focus too much on our sins and failings and we end up spiraling into a pit of negativity, which can bring death to our spirit.

There is merit in examining our failings, asking for forgiveness and improving our life so that we can be in right relationship with each other and with God. It is the Holy spirit that resides in each of us that enables us to have those conversations that will free us and give us life!

The fire that Jesus brings is, of course, the Holy Spirit and we hear about the coming of the Spirit in the 2nd chapter of the Book of Acts, which was also written by Luke. These conversations are hard and have the potential to divide us, just as Jesus describes father against son, mother against daughter. But perhaps this is necessary?

How many of us need to have a hard conversation with someone but don’t know what to say, or how to say it, in a way that restores and renews the relationship?

It is the Spirit that gives us life; the same Spirit that dwells within us can give us the spiritual or charismatic gifts that we need to improve our relationships. We just need to spend some time in prayer asking for the gift, asking for help from the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what is necessary, what is right and what is just.

If we are open to, and ask for, the gift of the Spirit the catechism teaches us that the gifts of the Spirit will complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.

Thomas Aquinas teaches us that each virtue has a corresponding gift that God gives us through grace in the Holy spirit so that we can bring heaven to earth. Not fire and brimstone but the fire of the Holy Spirit!

So, you may possess the virtue of charity, but you need some further insight into the situation. Ask the Spirit for the gift of wisdom! You might possess the virtue of hope, then ask the Spirit for the gift of knowledge! You might possess the virtue of prudence then ask the Spirit for the supernatural gift of counsel!

Shane invites us to call upon the Holy Spirit, our helper in this life and the next.