Wednesday of Rorate Coeli

John the Baptist spoke of Christ, saying, “He who is coming after me… will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Mt 3:11). For many years, when hearing these words, I assumed that John was speaking of the fire of the Holy Spirit. But that’s not what this verse is saying. John is telling us that baptism is an either/or. Either a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit, or he will be baptized with fire on the last day. But everyone will be baptized in one way or another.

The end of all things is near. Most people don’t believe it. They are going about their business today, caught up with a hundred petty cares, completely unaware that time is about to expire for our broken world. Christ will return, just as he has promised, but he will come as a thief in the night. In other words, he will come exactly at that moment when he is least expected.

Consider the first coming of Christ, four-thousand years after the promise was first given to Adam and Eve. Was there anything about this particular time that would have identified it as the moment that God has chosen to reveal our Savior? Up until that time, people were simply doing what they had done for centuries: eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage. Four thousand years is a long time to wait, and certainly it must have seemed as though the promised would never be kept.

So it is today. It has been two-thousand years since our Lord promised to return. Some might think that God is slow to keep his promises. But he is not slow, St. Peter tells us. He delays the end out of mercy, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pe 3:9). For when that day finally arrives, and it will, then comes the fire about which John warns, and everyone not baptized with the Holy Spirit unto repentance will be baptized with fire. Out of mercy, God forestalls this day of judgment in order that many might hear the proclamation of the Gospel and come to repentance. Think of it. Had Christ returned a hundred years ago, you would not have had the opportunity to be brought to faith. God has been merciful to you.

The Pharisees supposed that their lineage would save them—“We have Abraham as our father”—but God is no respecter of persons. There is no such thing as a family pass into heaven. It won’t matter that you are a fifth-generation member of a historic church. Only one thing matters. John says, “Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance” (Mt 3:8). John’s message could seem like cause for fear. He speaks of the wrath to come, of the ax already laid to the root of the trees, of the baptism of fire which will consume the earth. And how can you be sure that you have fruit worth of repentance?

I’ll tell you what this fruit is. It is nothing other than faith in Christ. This alone is what pleases God. Faith means to believe the promises of God, specifically the promises he made to you when you were baptized. That was the moment that Jesus washed away all your sins. It was the moment that you received the Holy Spirit. And it was the moment that God promised you that nothing would separate you from eternal life. Do you believe his promise? Then you have the fruit of repentance. You have the one thing God requires: faith in Jesus.

Yes, the great and terrible day is coming when all the elements will be burned up. The baptism with fire is coming, but we who have already been baptized with the Holy Spirit into Christ has nothing to fear. We look, as St. Peter says, “for the new heaven and the new earth,” where we will dwell with our Lord and Savior for eternity. Amen.