Father Boris Bobrinskoy continues his discussion of Tradition in the ninth chapter of The Compassion of the Father
the living apostolic Tradition is, above all, a transmission. In a transmission, there is, indeed, a double movement. First, there is a reception through the ages, through the centuries: we receive, and what we receive becomes a part of ourselves, or rather, we become that which we receive; we assimilate one another, identify ourselves with the content of the Tradition. Next, there is a transmission through us, of what has been received in a chain unbroken to the end of the ages. In this respect, it is appropriate to make another distinction between Tradition as a living transmission and Tradition as the content of the faith. (160)
This living transmission is the work of the Holy Spirit and it is fundamentally relational.
the Tradition is the work of the Spirit who penetrates into the content of the deposit of the transmitted faith, and who enlightens the one who receives it. This transmission is always of the order of a relationship and of personal progress, of a dialogue from heart to heart, from mouth to ear, of an interiorization. More than a phenomenon, we are faced with a true mystery: spiritual fatherhood.
For the deposit of faith to be transmitted unchanged and unchangeable from generation to generation, to retain its integrity, fullness, and simplicity – such as it has been uttered, carried out, and realized in Jesus Christ – the Holy Spirit must act and allow those who have received it and are in agreement with this life and message faithfully to transmit it. In this sense, the concept of spiritual fatherhood, of spiritual begetting, most appropriately expresses what constitutes the nerve, axis, and spinal cord of this living reality of the Tradition – irreducible to the external transmission of a truth or a philosophy. (160)
While the concept of fatherhood is a broad one, and while various forms of fatherhood exist in the Church, it is fundamentally connected to the transmission of life itself.
Transmission becomes a genuine experience. What is transmitted is fire. As long as truths remain on the intellectual, cerebral plane, there will be no chance of transmission because they are aloof and cold. Only that which burns can illumine and kindle the core of a being. (160)
Thus,
This fatherhood is an essential act of the Holy Spirit, in which the two dimensions meet: “horizontality” and “verticality”; “horizontality” because it is uninterrupted since the first centuries until today and will remain so until the end of time; “verticality” because, beyond all human mediations and pedagogies, God is and remains our only Father, Christ our only Lord, and the Holy Spirit our only physician in the growth of the faith. (161)
A vow of conversation 
October 12, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I keep coming back to this post. And especially the line you chose as the title. It so fits for me! And here are two things I’ve run across which seem to dovetail. One is by Lev Gillet:
“God is fire. God is love. God is a self-propagating emotional power, a fire that shares itself. Centuries after Moses beheld the flames of the burning bush, this same fire merged with the tongues of flame at Pentecost, and with the fire that burned within the hearts of the disciples at Emmaus. In saying that God is a fire of love we are certainly stating a truth that plays havoc with many of our ideas, in fact almost all our ideas.”
Quoted here: http://www.jacwell.org/spring_summer2000/father_lev_gillet.htm#note3
The other from Alexander Schmemann, an article on Theology and Eucharist (I allude to the reason why below):
http://www.schmemann.org/byhim/theologyandeucharist.html
And I think the key is this line from your first quote: “what we receive becomes a part of ourselves, or rather, we become that which we receive;” Yes, in my experience this is so true. If you really “get” what this means, it’s a type of indwelling – experienced as both being “inside” and “surrounding” at the same time. Kind of like a reverberation would be – coming from outside and inside together. (fire not excluded – as it’s inside and surrounding at the same time)
That’s part of it. And the other part is the “effect” of one person’s experiencing this, BECOMING THIS, on those around that person. If we are in the presence of someone who has “caught fire” this way, we “know” that they “know” (in a kind of “knowing” which cannot be explained by reason).
I’m only speaking from my own experience – so I can’t explain or defend it. But I have no doubt that persons “set aflame” this way become “Spirit Bearers” – able to embody and transmit this ” … ” – however imperfectly, for we are all so very limited in the face of Holy Mystery and the “impact” on us of this ” … ”
I say all this with great trepidation. For it is treading on Holy Ground. It all speaks to the REALITY of the Trinity. And the meaning of the Incarnation and the Body of Christ (in the way Schmemann discusses in the article I linked).
Yes, as your quote says: “always of the order of a relationship and of personal progress, of a dialogue from heart to heart…”
Yes, exactly. But I’m telling you, the “transmitters” God chooses are not always Christians. The first Holy Man whom I heard was Abraham Joshua Heschel – when I was maybe 19. (The article by Schememann sort of “explains” how this could be – since the Body of Christ, if I understand him correctly, is mystically “for” the whole of creation – and to my mind, God is free to choose those who embody this “Fire” of Divinity. I’m sure some will now call me a heretic, but I can live with that – I leave it to God to defend me.) For a wonderful description of Heschel, read this article – it accords with my own experience of long, long ago:
http://www.crosscurrents.org/heschel.htm
It’s all way more complex than I comprehend or ever could try and verbalize. Compassionate souls will understand.
(I leave it to your discretion, Macrina, whether to publish this or not. For I don’t want to create a distraction.)