Small is the fire within me, and the flame of my love flickers low. It’s a phrase I came across in
my spiritual readings in the last couple of weeks and it’s kind of haunting me. Small is the fire
within me, and the flame of my love flickers low. What do we do when the flame we have inside
of us begins to ‘flicker low?’
I have a friend that works very closely with the Guardians; she works with the teams and the
wives and the players. I sent this phrase to her and I said, ‘What are the Guardians thinking
right now after their loss?’ I said to her, “Sometimes I feel like, in my life, that that flame does
grow small, that flame does flicker.” I was laughing with her as I said, ‘Early on, when I was
newly ordained, people often came up to me, in a kind of frantic, panic state, and said, ‘Father
don’t ever lose what you have.’” I thought, I haven’t heard anyone say that to me in
years(laughter). Have I lost it? Is it the gray hair? Why don’t people say that to me anymore?
It’s a question we all should reflect on in our lives. What do we do when the flame grows low?
What do we do when the fire in our heart’s flicker? My friend and I began to have a text chain
back and forth and this is what she said to me: “You remind me of Jose Ramirez.” This is my
jersey (Father holds up a Ramirez jersey). Signed right there, isn’t that great? But, I kind of
thought, I want the Pope’s jersey (holding up the Pope’s Chicago White Sox Jersey to lots of
laughter!). Or I want to start chasing parishioners with this baseball bat.
I want to read to you the text chain that she sent to me. I said to her, “I don’t know, sometimes
I feel like my flame is low, sometimes I feel like its flickering, it isn’t blazing as much as when I
was newly ordained.” She said, “I love it. There’s a lot of players on this team who when their
flame begins to flicker, they would get sent down to Columbus, the triple AAA team.” It’s like
going back to practice. She said they would get sent down there for a year or two because they
just weren’t good enough right now, or they were injured, and finally they would come back
healthy. Eventually, when they got that call to come back to Cleveland, it helped the team make
it to the post season. She said, “I picture those early on in their career being told, ‘don’t mess it
up, don’t lose what you have.’”
They probably don’t hear those words over the next few years after that. Then they get hurt
and they might get sent down to Columbus, for them it’s a reality check. For me, it’d like getting
called to the bishop’s office.
She said, when they return to Cleveland the fire is renewed, it’s back in them; they have a new
appreciation, a new fire in their belly, a new work ethic, new goals. She continued, “The
question is how do you keep that fire going?” She said, “I’m laughing now as I write this
because the opposite of young or injured player, is you or Jose Ramirez. You are just expected
to have that fire, to keep it going. People don’t tell the players that anymore, when they are
seasoned. Life is still a grind and they might even lack the fire at times; it’s hard to keep it up
and going.”
How do they keep being their best? How do they not lose what they have without taking an
obstacle or an injury to make the fire stronger?
I was looking up some articles about Jose Ramirez over the years and how he was described by
everyone as a younger player and then the ebbs and flows of that. In 2017, they said, “Jose
Ramirez is messing with forces we don’t understand. He is absolutely on fire right now. No one
can deny the absolute heat that is radiating from him.” In 2018, they said, “Oops, the Jose
Ramirez story. Scouts are skeptical. Many don’t think he’ll hold up. Ramirez doesn’t show up
highly on the prospect list.” The next year: “Ramirez has altered his approach to try and beat
the shift. He lost his power and didn’t even get those hits easily.” And then before this season:
“Opposing teams simply intentionally walk regardless of the seriousness of the reality.” Why
were they walking him? He was on fire, right? Then after the final loss, he would say
“Obviously, you feel bad, you don’t want to go home that early but you’ve got to keep your
head up and you’ve got to keep working and go back stronger, because you know that the goal
remains the same. The goal remains the same”
What’s the goal for us? Heaven. And it’s to be on fire on this earth. Jesus came to set the world
on fire.
Saint Paul is writing to this community because he just wants to remind them that our fire does
dim from time to time. He’s telling them to stir that flame that they received, to stir that back
into fire. Like a Guardians player who may have been injured or sent to Columbus, that fire
needs to be rekindled. That can happen to all of us in different ways. It could be a physical
injury or a setback like that that just takes a lot out of us. It could be the loss of a job that can
physically paralyze you. It could be the breakup of a girlfriend or boyfriend or even a marriage
or family. It might be health problems or chronic conditions that you have that wear on us.
I think of a newly married couple on their wedding day; they are just smiling at each other, they
are just beaming, making these vows that they have no idea what that entails (laughter). Then
you see a couple that has been married forty or fifty years, and they start to look like each
other. They are tired. They have been through the good times and the bad times, in sickness
and in health. But the flame never leaves, it’s still there, even if it’s grown small. It can be
stirred; it can be kindled once more.
Isaiah 42, verse 3 says, “A bruised reed shall not break, and a smoldering wick shall not be
quenched.” Psalm 39 says, “My heart grew hot within me as I meditated and burned for your
word.”
How do stir the fire? How do we take that fire that has grown dim? The primary way is Sunday;
it’s by coming here together as the Body of Christ, worshipping together, receiving the Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus into our hearts. That becomes a new fire in our hearts. And, I
think it’s even the way we spend our Sundays, not just at mass, but the rest of our Sunday. Is
that time kindling the fire, so that you can go into week refreshed, restored, inspired? Do we
make our Sundays, the Sabbath, holy days?
The bishop has asked that every one of us in the Diocese of Cleveland spend 15 minutes a day
in prayer before the Lord. That 15 minutes of prayer is a kindling for us. I know when I need to
be set on fire, when I want inspiration, I always go before the blessed sacrament and spend
time in adoration.
People would also say early on, ‘Don’t lose your enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is an interesting word;
it comes from the Greek. En is in, and theos means, God. It means to have God in you, to have
enthusiasm. We need to have the Holy Spirit in us. That’s something we can ask, the Lord just
says ask for the Holy Spirit and you will receive it. It could be spiritual reading or listening to
podcasts or music or making a retreat. If it’s your marriage, go on a date night, do something
special together as a couple. During this year of the Jubilee Year, go to one of the shrines, make
a retreat day for yourself.
Every Tuesday, we have Tuesday night teachings. I literally put them on Tuesdays just so we can
use the acronym TNT, because I want to explode this parish, I want it to be set on fire. We have
these amazing programs that we offer every Tuesday night; it’s a way that people, when they
come are absolutely set on fire.
When was the last time that you’ve been on fire? When was the last time that you were
completely in love with the Lord, on fire with His love? “Small is the fire within me, the flame of
my love, flickers low.” Let’s do as Saint Paul encourages, let us each “stir into flame, the gift that
God has given to us and guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within
us.”
Enthusiasm. God is within us.
