What sets your heart on fire? What might be described as a passion in your heart? What happens when you allow your heart to be affected by something true, good or beautiful? While we might get “fired up” about Husker Volleyball, Legion Baseball, a remodeled kitchen, the incredible buck we see frequently on our trail camera, nothing is quite like that which sets off a spiritual fire in our hearts, and it is important that we notice the difference. I say that because we use/misuse the word “love” to describe how we feel about everything. We say we love our kids, our dog, our friends, a good pizza, or a new Scotch whiskey we have discovered. We say that we love to sleep-in, we love to travel to new places, to renew annual family traditions and to start the day with a good cup of coffee. But that’s not what really sets our hearts on fire.
Our hearts are capable of so much more. What sets our hearts on fire is often what fulfills us – what calls forth the best in us, what is virtuous and even heroic. Our hearts are made to participate in things that will transform us – like making a generous gift of ourselves to others, or foregoing some opportunity in life because it would take us away from what really matters. What enflames our hearts might be simply observing the sacrificial gift of someone else whose virtue ignites something in us we’ve never experienced before.
The two disciples of Jesus on the road to Emmaus experienced something profound from their encounter with Jesus. As he walked along with them, he explained the Scriptures. As he did so, they longed for more and when it seemed he was going on farther, they prevailed upon our Lord to stay with them. It was when he broke bread with them that they recognized him and said, “Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So, notice what this might correspond to in your own life. I would submit that it is where you encounter our Lord.
I was privileged to attend the National Eucharistic Congress in July of 2024 in Indianapolis. So many aspects of that experience set our hearts on fire. The many well-known presenters, the music, the break-out sessions, the liturgies, the Eucharistic procession through the streets of the city and the crowd itself – it all had such a profound way of setting our hearts on fire with God’s tremendous love. Hearts set on fire are filled with hope and greater resolve to “seek first the kingdom of God.” The two men on the road to Emmaus who encountered Jesus personally, went and told others. They announced the good news; they set other hearts on fire!
As Catholics who are baptized and confirmed, we have the important responsibility to keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts and to let our light shine before others. The more we cultivate the fire of God’s love in our hearts, the more others will be drawn to desire what they see in us. The more we live in a posture of receptivity to all that God gives, and a spirit of docility to all that God asks, the more profound can be our witness that the fire of God’s love is real. Others will see authentic holiness in us and pursue an integrated life of faith themselves. The fire catches on! Hearts are set ablaze! It is the witness of our faith that must enkindle or rekindle in others the fire of God’s love until their hearts, like the two on the road to Emmaus, experience a burning desire to know the Lord.
We would do well to pray and ask for a profound encounter with the Lord Jesus, especially in these days before Pentecost. Secondly, we ought to pray daily with Sacred Scripture, the single greatest source to ignite the fire of God’s love in our hearts – perhaps simply using the daily Mass readings. By fanning the flame of faith that we first received in baptism, our hearts will experience a growing intimacy with all that is true, good and beautiful. As the world seems to be getting more godless, the more the fire of our hearts must bring new hope to those around us.
The Church has always encouraged us to study the lives of the saints. We see in them great examples of hearts on fire. The more we learn about them, the more likely we will be able to emulate them. Secondly, we all have examples of holy men and women in our lives whose hearts are on fire like the two men on the road to Emmaus in Sunday’s gospel. We must first study these living examples of the fire of God’s love in their hearts and then allow our hearts to be affected by their witness.
There are many tremendous examples of hearts on fire with the love of God in our time, and most of them are not on podcasts. Rather, they are in our parishes, where we work, and where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus. Baptism first brought us the flame of faith and enkindled in us a desire for more of God’s love. That fire is nourished in every celebration of the Eucharist, as we recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread at Mass and receive his love in Holy Communion. Likewise, it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that our hearts remain on fire in the daily events of life as we draw others to encounter Jesus, as well. Ask the Holy Spirit to enkindle in your heart the fire of his love in ever new and beautiful ways.
