Running into a Burning Firehouse

The first thing I wanted to be when I grew up was a fire fighter.  I’m not exactly sure what so captured my imagination.  It may have been the children’s book “The Fire Cat,” which I really loved.  It could have been that my favorite color was red.  It could have been the fancy trucks and cool tools.  But that was what I wanted to do.

As I’ve grown older, I would not say that my appreciation for firefighting has ever been extinguished (I know, that’s a horrible pun).   It is lifesaving work, and involves the saving of a life that is facing a most horrible and cruel end.  In fact, I can think of very few life-threatening circumstances that I would more profoundly value being saved from.  How can we not have a great appreciation for men and women who risk their lives to save others from burning to death?  We should pray in a particular way this week for those who are battling the fires in northern California.

Fire is one of the most powerful forces on earth and is also a very powerful image used throughout human history.  It was associated with various gods and forces in ancient times and continues to be used as a powerful spiritual and religious symbol throughout the world in almost every culture.  Like many powerful forces in our world, such as water or wind, fire has come to symbolize many things for many different peoples, both positive and negative.

Catholics are very familiar with fire as a religious symbol.  In the Catholic tradition, fire symbolizes critical mysteries of our faith: the new life of Jesus Christ risen from the dead which is celebrated each year at the Easter Vigil and the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in the upper room as “tongues of fire.” Candles, symbolizing the light of Christ, adorn every Catholic church, and each person who is baptized receives his or her own personal “fire” – a light of faith that is “to be kept burning brightly” until the Lord returns in glory.

Yet within the Catholic tradition, the symbol of fire is not exclusively viewed in a positive light.  Fire, after all, is used by God throughout the scriptures as a means of punishment and destruction.  And, most poignantly, Jesus speaks of fire and burning when he describes the torment and misery suffered by those who experience eternal damnation.

Lastly, fire is spoken of throughout the Christian scriptures in another, moral sense: as a symbol of depraved sensual desire.  There are a number of passages in the scriptures where lust is referred to as a kind of fire.  The book of Job refers to lust as a “fire the burns all the way down to the netherworld (Job 31:12).”   Proverbs asks, “Can a man take coals into his lap and not expect to get burned (Prov 6:27)?”  St. Paul speaks of lustful men as “burning with lust” or being “on fire” with lust (Romans 1:27, 1 Cor 7:9).”   And certainly this use of the image of fire as a symbol of intense sexual desire or lust is not exclusive to Christianity.

The House is on Fire

Using the symbol of fire in this way,  we must today acknowledge clearly: Western culture is currently engulfed by a hellacious fire of sexual depravity, perversion and abuse.  It is a fire that has spread throughout society, leaving few people unharmed or unaffected.  Like the recent wild fires that continue to ravage Northern California, burning down homes and destroying lives, the wild fire of sexual liberation unleashed some 50 years ago continues to rage on unabated, destroying marriages, traumatizing innocents, destroying careers, and corrupting even those who would seem to be safe.  Nothing has been spared from the burning heat: not even those who are supposed to be our moral and religious leaders.  Within the Catholic Church, this has been so very painfully apparent.  The recent revelations surrounding former Archbishop McCarrick represent a new and demoralizing chapter in the Church’s battle against the particularly demonic flames that have threatened to consumer her.  Every time the blaze seems to be contained, a wisp of smoke gives away a previously unnoticed hot spot and another conflagration ensues.  One begins to wonder: who will it be next?  Whose reputation will be the next to go up in flames?  Is there anyone who is not embroiled in this?  Will there be anything left standing?

A fire fighter can tell you about the “fire triangle:” the three critical elements necessary for a fire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and heat.  All three are required in order for a fire to burn, and the more that all three are present, the more severe and hot the fire will be.  I would submit that we are facing a similar cultural “fire triangle” in the area of human sexuality.  The fuel: an epidemic of estranged, lonely people who are lacking real connection, love, and affection.  The oxygen: a driving cultural wind of arbitrary individual power that rejects objective principles about the human person, dismisses traditional moral and religious values, and promotes self-fulfillment as the primary goal of life.  The heat: a vast corporate entertainment complex that is content to profit from the sale of a depraved mix of sexual allure, deviance, exploitation, and violence.

And unlike the fires in California, this fire is not even remotely contained.  Some would see in the media attention given to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, sexual abuse in college and Olympic athletic programs, and the  “Me Too” movement signs that our culture is beginning to hold the line against the flames.  It is true that we are becoming more aware of the damage, of the way so many have been burned by sexual harassment and abuse in ways that have been tragic and life-altering.  But I am not convinced that this awareness is yet translating into any concrete actions that will help put out the fire.  It is not enough to merely express deep concern, outrage and frustration about how people have been so deeply traumatized.  Certainly, this recognition is a first step; you have to care for those who have been injured.  But a genuine response cannot stop with outrage, trauma counseling and financial payments.  As long as the fire of sexual immorality continues to rage, victims will continue to come forward and the suffering will continue.  At a certain point, the fire itself must be fought. 

Yet I am not convinced that our culture is prepared or ready to tackle this fight.  There is a disorienting quality to fires.  Smoke is blinding, the air is suffocating.  It is not easy to see what is going on or to think straight.  Sometimes it is difficult to tell what is on fire and what is not, and how serious the fire truly is.  Fires are unpredictable and powerful – even well intentioned and good people are overwhelmed and afraid to approach them.  Many times tactics that seem unrelated or drastic are required.  Without experience and knowledge, the task is daunting.  Firefighting is a science.   

Arson at the Fire Station

Pope Francis has called the Church a field hospital.  This is a wonderful analogy for the Church, highlighting the pastoral and ministerial dimensions of her work in caring for those who are sick and suffering.  I would propose that another fitting analogy for the Church, when speaking about sexual immorality as a fire spreading in a culture, is that of a fire station.  The Church has battled against this fire from its earliest years.  Both Greek and Roman societies were aflame with sexual immorality and perversion at the time when Christianity burst onto the scene.  Christians rushed into the burning streets and went to work.  Thousands of men and women vowed themselves to perpetual virginity.  Thousands more married Christians faithfully lived out their marriage vows and were open to children, turning away from divorce and contraceptives, which were common at the time.  Pastors, picking up from the apostles themselves, preached directly against all forms of sexual immorality and boldly encouraged their flocks to live chaste and virtuous lives. 

It was a fight. Purity, virginity, chastity – words that described weakness or naivete in the larger pagan world, were virtues prized in the Church, and men and women died to uphold them.  A number of the martyrs of the first centuries who we continue to honor today were Christian women who refused to give in to the sexual demands of pagan men.  These women were encouraged and admired for their steadfast conviction and refusal to bend, despite the very real torments they faced.  They were held up as witnesses and soldiers for Christ, true defenders of the faith and heroes to all believers.  In the centuries that followed, Christians began to create a culture of beauty that lifted human dignity out of the gutters of sexual objectification and called for the respect of all men and women as temples of the Holy Spirit.  Religious communities of vowed men and women sprang up all throughout Europe, bringing with them a new freedom and relief to many diverse cultures of the pagan world that had been tormented by centuries of sexual deviance, exploitation, and abuse.  A parish or a monastery or a convent was a fire station in a world on fire with the flesh, a firehouse dispatching fire-fighters who knew how to battle against the flames of the passions and tame them.  A huge treasury of knowledge and experience fighting against sins of the flesh was gradually amassed over the centuries in the writings of thousands of saints.  Laws, practices, and social mores organically developed in a way that encouraged and safeguarded chastity and sexual health in marriage, religious life, and other aspects of society.

Obviously, there were still many occasions of sexual immorality in Christendom during the first millennia.  But what is clear is that, unlike so many other cultures throughout the world and throughout the centuries, sexual exploitation, abuse and immorality was not promoted or condoned among Christians.  On the other hand, one could argue that over the course of the second Christian millennia there has been a general and gradual eroding of Christian sexual mores and practices in Western society.  The Judeo-Christian tradition was increasingly dismissed as a “medieval” tradition based on a belief system that subordinated women, promoted shame of one’s body, and forbade any sensual pleasure.  But it wasn’t until the second half of the 20^th century that the real revolt began.  Contraception, no fault divorce, the normalization of pornography, the embrace of homosexual activity, and the redefinition of gender itself are the final push of a great sexual revolution against Christian sexual morality that has all but demolished every firewall the Church carefully built over the centuries.  Virginity and chastity have ceased to be prized even by Christians, even by some of those who share the marriage bed or have taken vows.

And as all these walls have been tumbling down and the fires getting out of control, the Evil One made a very cunning and strategic move.  He turned arsonist, snuck in, poured gas around the firehouse and threw the match.  The fire of priest sexual abuse struck at the core of the credibility of Catholic Church to speak on issues of sexual morality.  The institution with the greatest knowledge and dedication to the science of chastity and tradition of virginity in the West was itself set aflame.  Struggling to address the fire spreading within its own ranks, the Evil One worked to overwhelm and demoralize the leadership of the Church, forcing her to neglect the larger social inferno for lack of credibility and resources.  It was a brilliantly diabolical move.  Now, not only were the streets burning, but the firehouses themselves were burning. 

How many of us, walking onto this scene have been throwing up our hands to the heavens as we cry out “to whom shall we go?”  Is there not one place of refuge on this scorched earth?  Must everything be consumed by this fire of the flesh?

Fighting Fire with Fire

But all is not lost.  We must take heart.  It is true that many of the traditional means and institutions that have been used to fight fires have been lost or are badly damaged.  But fires can be fought in many ways.  I remember well when I was in high school we visited a “smoke jumpers” station out west.  These guys were crazy.  They did not have big trucks, they carried no water.  They would get flown out into these remote areas where forest fires had started and they would parachute down into the trees, many times getting stranded up in them before rappelling down to the ground to begin their work.  They fought fire with non-traditional means: instead of water and foam, they brought chainsaws and axes.  They cleared whole sections of woods and then lit them on fire, destroying the needed fuel for the approaching blaze.  They fought fire with fire.  And they were able to put out large fires with very little in the way of institutional or mechanical support.

I suggest that the approach of these smoke jumpers may be a good analogy for an approach needed in our society today.  We must fight fire with fire – fight the fire of sexual immorality with the fire of the Holy Spirit, not a fire that destroys, but a fire that purifies and binds us to God and one another.  Men and women need to courageously step forward and be willing to be dropped into the current cultural conflagration armed only with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  

We should remember the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, heat.  A fire needs all three in order to burn.  It will be too difficult in the near term to shift the modern winds of individualistic will to power or dampen the heat of a sexually debaucherously entertainment industry.  The Church lacks the institutional and cultural credibility and strength.  Instead, Christians can set about destroying the fuel of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection, not with the old fire of selfish sensuality, but with a new fire of genuine love and community.  This new fire, the consuming fire of genuine love of neighbor, is the only way that I see the Church fending off the flames of sexual abuse and sin.  Only true love can destroy the pain and misery that fuels the twisted loves of this world.  Only a pure fire can fight the destructive fire of sexual immorality.

The fire blazes, but the Fire Fighters are Few.

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”  Jesus Christ seeks men and women to dedicate themselves to lighting this world on fire with his love, destroying the loneliness and isolation the Evil One uses as a fuel for his burning fire of sexually transmitted pain and destruction.  We must pray for a new generation of firefighters: Christian men and women dedicated to living a generous and chaste life.  And we should once more work to build up and foster within our community a deep and abiding appreciation for virginity, chastity, and sexual morality.  Priests and religious who make promises and vows of chastity should not be pitied or viewed with suspicion, but instead raised up as visible signs of the continued deep and abiding Catholic commitment to promoting sexual morality and holiness of life.  We should not forget the thousands of heroic chaste single and married men and women, seminarians, novices, priests, religious, and bishops who are running in and out of our burning firehouse, courageously fighting fires both within and without with limited support and resources, encouraging one another and reassuring us all by their daily efforts.  We need to pray for one another, encourage and defend one another, strategize and fight with one another, and remind one another that this fire will not burn forever.