Fire and Water

The Lord has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, good and evil and whichever one chooses, that shall be given. Sirach 15:15 In the Book of Genesis we have the story of creation. First there is the formless planet earth . . .  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters . . . Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land “earth,” and He called the gathering of the water “seas.” Recently I saw a video of an active volcano in Hawaii. It is literally an image of the on-going act of the creation of the earth - the clash of fire and water. The raging, fiery, molten lava rises up out of the fiery abyss, forming new land out of the sea; the sea in turn cools the fiery lava, calming its rage, allowing it now to become "dry land." "The Lord has placed before you fire and water". There is within us the fiery furnace of our passions, spilling out into our conscious lives, intent on consuming all within their path. Only when our passions meet the "waters of truth", are they tamed, and formed into a foundation upon which a rich and abundant life can be formed. And where do these "fiery passions" meet the "waters of truth"? It happens  when one enters into the Practice of Prayer. It happens when at the waters edge we encounter Jesus, who will form and shape our passion for life into a solid foundation upon which a holy and fruitful life can be lived. Think of the Waters of Baptism cascading down over the heart of one who now will be molded and shaped by the Spirit, in the image and likeness of Jesus. Before each person are life and death, good and evil and whichever one chooses, that shall be given.

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