Once again October brings memories of the acrid smoke of burning leaves. The city of Chicago eventually banned leaf burning as a cause of air pollution, but the experience is still with me. Many of us kids were fascinated by these fires and gathered around them in the early evenings. We were aware, though, of the dangers of fire. When I was nine years old, Our Lady of Angels Catholic School caught fire killing 92 pupils and 3 nuns. Fire was to be feared even though it had a certain attraction.

I have often used fires as an analogy for the experience of God, what religious scholar Rudolf Otto called the mysterium tremendum et fascinans,  a mystery that terrifies and fascinates. I know there many people don’t like that explanation because it includes the notion of fear.  “I don’t want to be afraid of God,” they say. Here we need clarification. Sometimes fear is used as a motivator to get people to do what they should. It’s the you’d-better-obey-God-or you’ll-spend-eternity-roasting-in-Hell approach. That’s fear of punishment rather than fear of God. The kind of fear behind the mysterium tremendum is to be overcome with awe in the presence of the Divine.

The experience of the holy is what causes Isaiah to cry out: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

It’s a rare experience, but one that we should long for and treasure.

Read Isaiah 6:1-8 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne