When hearts catch fire

In “Catching Fire,” the second book (and film adaptation) in the popular young adult series “The Hunger Games,” there’s a scene where the main character, Katniss, wears a dress that becomes engulfed in flames as she twirls. (It’s engineered in such a way as to not harm anybody.) It’s a striking moment that speaks to a variety of themes, including hope and strength in the face of seriously challenging circumstances.

Needless to say, this isn’t the kind of apparel we’d find in our own closets. But we can experience the dynamic, empowering sensation of hearts catching fire.

For me, this has come most meaningfully through my study and practice of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, shared her discovery in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” There’s a vivid phrase in this book that describes this Science as “aflame with divine Love” (p. 367).

Divine Love is another name for God, the infinite source of all that’s good and true. This supremely powerful, entirely pure, and unreservedly tender Love is at the very heart of Christian Science. In fact, this Science is the law of divine Love that Christ Jesus’ ministry revealed and proved.

Christian Science teaches the nature of God as not only Love but also constant Principle, intelligent Mind, unvarying Spirit, eternal Life, reliable Truth, harmonious Soul. It conveys the true nature of each of us as God’s spiritual, loved child – reflecting the love, integrity, and beauty of our Maker.

The spiritual truths Christian Science puts forth have sparked hope in countless lives and situations. And because that spark stems from infinite, all-powerful Love, it’s more than blind faith or optimism. It has serious substance – it rejuvenates, reforms, and cures.

Indeed, the more we soak up this divine Science of being and strive to make it our own, the more we come to realize that it’s more than theological points on a page. We feel the figurative flames of divine Love warming our hearts, revealing our true nature as divine Love’s self-expression – fueling compassion, joy, understanding, and healing.

In turn, anger, illness, inharmony, fear – whatever is illegitimate under the law of Love and therefore an error about our real identity – is burned off. I’ve experienced this firsthand, as have so many others across the globe.

The author of Revelation writes, “I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire” (Revelation 10:1). Science and Health includes an explanation of this passage that says in part, “To mortal sense Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow. When understood, it is Truth’s prism and praise. When you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, and it has for you a light above the sun, for God ‘is the light thereof.’ Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically described by John the Baptist as consuming error” (p. 558).

The “bright promise” of divine Science is timeless and universal. Each of us can strive to base our lives on the strong foundation of unchanging, infinite Truth and Love. We can let the incomparably bright light of God, good, guide our path and kindle our innate receptivity to the joy-bringing, harmonizing, and healing Christ, Truth.

Talk about a heart catching fire!