all for all and possesses all in all , because he rests in the one sovereign Good , Who is above all things , and from Whom every good flows and proceeds . He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver .
Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds . Love feels no burden , thinks nothing of troubles , attempts more than it is able , and does not plead impossibility , because it believes that it may and can do all things . For this reason , it is able to do all , performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls . ( Book III , Chapter Five )
Going back to the difficulty of kindling a fire , it was impossible for humanity to set the fire of God ’ s love ablaze . This supernatural fire required a supernatural source , and so the Son of God became man , and sacrificed himself so that in and through his humanity he could cast the fire of his love upon the earth .
From his heart , the hearts of all who believe in him become inflamed with the very same supernatural love . And the hearts of Christians are to serve as torches — or , better yet , flamethrowers — spreading the fire of Christ ’ s love everywhere .
“ A fire that is to be handed on ”
In order to spread the fire of Christ ’ s love , however , it is necessary to believe firmly in its power . Why bother to share something of little or no use ? There would be little to motivate such sharing .
But Christ ’ s love is of infinite worth . And that is not something Christians tell themselves in order to justify their religion or to feel better about life . Christ ’ s love is of immediate and decisive consequence in the crises the world faces today . It is not some abstract concept or a spiritual warm blanket for those who need comfort .
The love of God revealed in Jesus Christ is the center of all things , the great reality at the heart of all of reality .
Like any fire , the fire of Christ ’ s love destroys , purifies , and gives warmth and light . It destroys sin and the reign of Satan in the hearts of men . It purifies human hearts so that they become fixed on love of God and neighbor . And it brings the warmth of friendship with God and the light of his truth to a world torn by hatred and blinded by the darkness of sin , prejudice , and ignorance .
This process of destruction , purification , and receiving warmth and light requires humility , because it involves self-surrender at the deepest possible level . It is not a negotiated surrender , but one that is unconditional . Yet it is a surrender that brings not defeat , but victory .
Put most simply and practically , people could face COVID-19 with complete peace if their hearts burned with the love of Jesus Christ . There would be no racism , no hatred of police , and no unjust violence of any kind if the world were engulfed with the fire of Christ ’ s love . Even our notoriously contentious political discourse would be purified and strengthened if it were animated by the love of Christ .
The fire that burns in the Sacred Heart of Jesus can never be extinguished . In that sense , it is more out of man ’ s control than any wildfire . But the flames among us can fade if we neglect them . These flames seek fuel in order to grow and spread . That fuel is the human heart .
Hearts have grown cold and rejected God ’ s love . That is the first cause of all sin and fear , the cause of all the sorrows these strange months of 2020 have brought us . A COVID vaccine is needed . Renewal of race relations and relationships between police officers and citizens is needed . Sound laws and virtuous government officials who write and uphold these laws are needed . But what is needed more than anything is for the fire of Christ ’ s love to spread everywhere , to everyone .
In one of his sermons on the Sacred Heart , the Eucharist , and evangelization entitled , “ The Fire of Love ,” Msgr . Ronald Knox describes the full-flowering of Eucharistic grace , and of Christ ’ s love in the hearts of his true disciples .
He begins with the early growth of the Church as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles when the fire of Christ ’ s redemptive love , consummated on the cross and communicated in the Eucharist , was beginning to spread through the apostles ’ preaching and ministry : So the flame that was kindled in the upper room swept through Jerusalem — three thousand souls that day , five thousand souls the next , brought under the influence of the holocaust of love which had been offered for them on Calvary . They continued daily , this multitude of believers , in the breaking of bread ; the heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist fed the flame within them and made them in their turn missionaries for the faith they had received . The fire was spreading …
What need to follow the history of that conflagration further ? Still , all down the centuries , the love that burns in the Sacred Heart has found in men ’ s hearts fresh fuel to catch its flame . Again and again , through the centuries , men have prophesied that the Christian faith was doomed : “ the superstition ”, they say to one another , “ cannot last much longer ; the blaze has lasted so many centuries ; in time it must burn itself out ”. They do not understand that though the flame of charity in our imperfect human souls seems here to mount , there to die down as the Spirit , blowing where he will , fans it or lets it smoulder , the heart of the blaze is something that glows white-hot with the interpenetrating glow which the Godhead communicates to it , inextinguishable and indefectible as the Being of God himself . Let them try to quench the flames , they will rise higher ; let them wait to see the end of the conflagration , and it will burst out with fresh vigour where they least expected it . Our Lord Jesus Christ came to cast a fire on the earth ; and what was his will but that it should be kindled ? And what is his will , no human effort can gainsay .
As for us Christians , we will draw near to it . Oh , we are very cautious about it , some of us ; we only just want to warm ourselves a little , we don ’ t want to get scorched with the flames . Or are we really Christians , when we calculate like that ? Are we really Christians , when we think
12 Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Fall 2020 / Winter 2021