What do the fire of the Holy Spirit and the fire of the world offer you?

The psalmist says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4). St. Macarius the Great clarifies how our hearts’ desires direct both visible physical fire and the invisible fire of the Holy Spirit:

The righteous Three Young Men were cast into the midst of the fiery furnace; but by the divine fire burning in their hearts and working in their thoughts, the visible fiery furnace was transformed into coolness. The furnace could neither burn them nor destroy them; instead it glorified them, and the king saw a fourth person like a son of god embracing them and walking with them.

When the children of Israel worshiped idols, they forced Aaron to collect their golden vessels and ornaments. Aaron told Moses that when the golden ornaments were cast into the fire, a golden calf came out. Their inner intention was to commit idolatry, and the fire fulfilled that intention for them by producing the golden calf that they worshipped openly (Ex. 32:24).

The hearts of the three young men longed for paradise and the fiery furnace was transformed for them into a kind of paradise. The people of Israel longed for the worship of the calf Apis, which was in Egypt, and the fire molded the golden calf for them to worship.

St. Macarius the Great says, “the Three Children, because of their righteousness, while they were in the visible fire, had in their hearts the divine and heavenly fire ministering within their thoughts and exerting its energy in them. That very fire showed itself outside them. It stood between them and the visible fire, and restrained it, that it should not burn the righteous, nor do them any manner of hurt …” In like manner, when the mind of Israel and their thoughts were bent upon departing far from the living God and turning to idolatry, Aaron was compelled to tell them to bring their golden vessels and ornaments. Then the gold and the vessels, which they cast into the fire, became an idol, and the fire, as it were, copied their intention. That was a wonderful thing. They, secretly, in purpose and thought, determined upon idolatry, and the fire accordingly fashioned the vessels thrown upon it into an idol, and then they committed idolatry openly (Ex. 32:24). As, then, the Three Children, having thoughts of righteousness, received in themselves the fire of God, and worshipped the Lord in truth, so now faithful souls receive that divine and heavenly fire, in this world, in secret; and that fire forms a heavenly image upon their humanity.”⁸⁹³

And he says, “As the fire formed the golden vessels, and they became an idol [Ex. 32:24], so does the Lord, who copies the intentions of faithful and good souls, and forms an image even now in the soul according to their desire, and at the resurrection it appears external to them, and glorifies their bodies within and without. But as the bodies of some are at this time decayed for a season, and dead, and dissolved, so also are their thoughts decayed by the action of Satan, and are dead to the life indeed, and buried in mire and earth; for their soul is

893 St. Macarius the Great, Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian , trans., A. J. Mason (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921) Homily 11.2: pp. 79–80.

perished. As, therefore, the Israelites cast the golden vessels into the fire, and they became an idol, so now the man has given over his pure and good thoughts to evil, and they have been buried in the mire of sin, and are become an idol. And what shall a man do to discover them, and discern them, and cast them out of his own fire ? Here the soul has need of a divine lamp, even of the Holy Spirit, who sets in order the darkened house . It needs the bright sun of righteousness, which enlightens and rises upon the heart, as an instrument to win the battle.”⁸⁹⁴