Sunday's first reading is taken from the book of Malachi.
Its haunting fire image is juxtaposed by the specific affects it will have on both the just and the unjust.
Lo, the day is coming,
blazing like an oven,
when all the proud
and all evildoers
will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set them
on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.
But for you who fear my name,
there will arise
the sun of justice
with its healing rays.
The idea that a kind of fire can have a destroying and healing affect on two different groups of people is seen in the Eastern Christian theology concerning the afterlife. The idea is that both the just and the unjust will be in the Presence of God after they die. The difference is that God's burning Love will be torture to those who do not love Him, and healing to those who do.
blazing like an oven,
