Joke: A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas. A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those sporty 4-wheel drive vehicles." "She did," he replied. "But where was I going to find a fake Jeep?"

People thought that John was the Christ, but John didn’t fake it to go along with the crowd and testified for Christ saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire” reported in today’s Gospel. What does it mean to baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire? How would we rejoice in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire?

Msgr. Charles Pope said, “Too many people are satisfied with which living their faith by inference, rather than by experience. In other words, they are content to go along saying what they heard someone else say. “Jesus is Lord and risen from the dead” because my mom says so, or my preacher says so, (or even), the Bible says so. All of this is fine, for faith first comes by hearing. But there comes a point when you have to say so because you know it to be true.

This is what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It is to be able to say, “In the laboratory of my own life, I have tested the Word of God and found it to be true. I have personally met and know the Lord, I know Him for myself.” Our baptism will be meaningless if it just stayed in the Church only; if our faith is not tested by the Word of God; and if we cannot find that our baptism is a true baptism in which we are called to be priest, prophet, and king that means to live a life of prayer, to live a life of good moral examples, and to be truthful to ourselves and others. To know the Word of God is to allow ourselves to be tested. For example, I should make time to go to Church today because it’s the Holy Day of Obligation. The devil might play a trick in your mind and say, “Well, it’s already late and tired, just stay home and pray it’s enough.” Or it might say, “Well, I just skip the Mass this time and go to confession, I would be okay.” Many other excuses that the devil may present to us. How can we know God when time after time we fail to keep holy on the holy days of obligation? Knowing the Word of God is not simply understanding but living it. One of the Ten Commandments is to keep Holy the Sabbath. How would we know and understand it when we cannot even live it? Perhaps, we know and understand it so well, but we don’t have enough courage and strength to live it. By knowing and understanding the Word of God, we will find rejoicing in waiting for the second coming of the Lord.

To understand the Word of God is not enough unless knowing. What is the difference between knowing and understanding? Bernard Lonergan, philosopher and theologian, in his theory of knowledge, said, “Human knowing is a combination of experience, understanding, and judgment.” To know is not just simply to experience with our five senses, but to understand it as well. For example, when I hold a pen in my hand, through my senses, I can tell it is a pen. But as a pen, its’ use is to write and not to cut paper nor to poke a hole. It will not be a pen if I do not use it only to write. Yet, we can poke a hole, but then it will damage the pen ball, and we cannot write it anymore. It cannot be a pen anymore. Our experience and understanding it is a pen, we use it to write only. However, experience with our five senses and understanding might not be enough to say that we know it is a pen unless it is recognized as a pen throughout the whole world. A stylish pen, for example, that we call in America. However, it might not be called a pen in Vietnam because they couldn’t write on paper with it. So, for us to know it is a pen, we ought not only to experience and understand it, but we need to be able to judge it so that it is recognized as a pen throughout the whole world.

Why do we need to know the difference between experience, understanding, and judging? It is so to avoid gossiping and criticizing. What is the definition of gossip? According to Google Dictionary, it is “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.” Why is it not confirmed as being true? It is because we might experience with our senses such as hearing or listening to someone talk about it without understanding the true matter. Even though we understand the matter, it is through one person, it might be false as well if it’s not confirmed by several people. The Lord Jesus is so wise when he teaches us not to judge. If it is true say it is true, and if it is not true say it is not true. If we don’t know, then say we don’t know. “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness,” a radio ad said.

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds us saying, “Rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” How would we rejoice in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire if it’s not to know and to understand the Word of God by kind words and good deeds to others? To have the courage and strength to live out what we understand to truly know the Word of God? Try not to gossip, not to criticize, and not to judge others, but to be truthful to each other. The decision is yours.