Sunday Gospel Reflection (February 2, 2025)

God, A Purifying Fire

One of the most important images for God in the entire Bible, not just the Old Testament mind you, is first given to us in Deuteronomy 4:24, but repeated in Hebrew 12:29, which is that “God is a consuming fire.” This is not simply to justify the fire and brimstone image of God that can be so destructive to our imaginations and psyches. As our first reading states, the purpose of this fire is “refining and purifying.” St. Paul will allude to the presence of God as purifying in 1 Corinthians 3:15 as well. It is also why Pope Benedict XVI speculates that this purifying fire is God Himself in his encyclical Spe Salvi (paragraph 47).

It should come as no surprise that fire came to be seen as the image for Purgatory. The word purgatory literally means “place of purification.” As the first reading from Malachi 3:1-4 and Gospel reading from Luke 2:22-40 also allude, this purification is primarily for the purpose of worship. Not only will God purify the precious metals, the “sons of Levi” themselves, the priests who assist in this worship. This purification happens in us when we  rend our hearts to paraphrase Joel 2:13.

This priesthood is the main topic of the second reading, Hebrews 2:14-18, and really the whole letter to the Hebrews, as well. Fittingly, this is the New Testament locus classicus for the “God is a consuming fire” image presented earlier. Here, the author presents Jesus as the pure sacrifice, but also the pure priest. Through our baptism, we participate in the priesthood of Jesus and so must imitate that purity in order to offer the sacrifice in union with him. 

This is why, to have the Gospel and the liturgy bring it all together, what is the primary image we have for the feast of the Presentation are candles. On the surface, this is a reference to St. Simeon’s “light of the world” exclamation, one of the most important titles for Jesus in the last one hundred years with the naming of the influential Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium. However, the only two ways to produce light in the time of Jesus would have been the sun and flame, two images evocative of God’s power, presence and love.