20181213 WE ARE GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST!
13
DECEMBER, 2018, Thursday, 2nd Week, Advent
WE ARE GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST!
Isa
41:13-20
13 For I, the Lord your God,
hold
your right hand;
it
is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.”
14 Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you
men of Israel!
I
will help you, says the Lord;
your
Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I will make of you a threshing
sledge,
new,
sharp, and having teeth;
you
shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and
you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 You shall winnow them and the wind shall
carry them away,
and
the tempest shall scatter them.
And
you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in
the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
17 When the poor and needy seek water,
and
there is none,
and
their tongue is parched with thirst,
I
the Lord will answer them,
I
the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and
fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I
will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and
the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the
acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I
will set in the desert the cypress,
the
plane and the pine together;
20 that men may see and know,
may
consider and understand together,
that
the hand of the Lord has done this,
the
Holy One of Israel has created it.
Mt
11:11-15
11 Truly, I say to you,
among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist;
yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the
Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,c and
men of violence take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law
prophesied until John; 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is
Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear,d let
him hear.
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISA 41:13 – 20; MT
11:11-15 ]
“I tell you solemnly, of
all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been
seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.” This
is such an amazing statement, too good to be true! How could anyone of us
claim that we are greater than John the Baptist? None of us is as holy as
he was. None of us has ever fasted and ate the meager food that he
did. None of us ever lived in the desert, in the extreme cold and
heat. And surely, none of us can claim that we are so passionately in
love with the Lord that we are willing to let go of everything and give our
lives to Him completely. So how could we ever dare to hope that we can be
greater than John the Baptist?
What is the basis of
Jesus’ promise to us? The truth is that John the Baptist is great not
because of what he did and how he lived an austere life in the desert.
Whilst all the great works that he did and the sacrifices he made cannot be
denied, yet what made him truly great was simply because the Lord worked in and
through Him. Indeed, the greatness of what we do and who we are cannot be based
on our own strength but purely on the grace of God. What made John the
Baptist great was that he allowed the grace of God to operate in and through
him.
This is what the first
reading is saying to us. When the Israelites were discouraged during
their exile in Babylon and wanted to give up hope, God sent the prophet Isaiah
to console them. God is not only the Lord of history but He also has a personal
interest in the lives of His people. With tender words of assurance and
consolation, the Lord said, “For I, the Lord, your God, I am holding you by the
right hand; I tell you, ‘Do not be afraid, I will help you’. Do not be afraid,
Jacob, poor worm, Israel, puny mite.’ I will help you – it is the Lord who
speaks – the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.”
However, it will not be on
our own terms but His. He is our redeemer. Hence, He told the
Israelites that He will transform and restore Israel from that of a desert and
wilderness back to a forest of greenery. Truly, the restoration of Israel
was not to be mistaken as the work of men but the work of God. Only then
will people come to know that the Lord is God and there is no other besides Him.
That is why the coming of
the Kingdom of God is also a gift. Jesus who is the Kingdom of God in
person is the gift of God at Christmas. In Jesus we see the Kingdom of
God at work, firstly in His life and in His ministry. Everything
that Jesus did was in the power of the Holy Spirit. Freely, Jesus came
from His Father to manifest His love for us. In Jesus, we see how the
power of God was at work, in His miracles and in His work of healing and
reconciliation. He is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, “The
poor and needy ask for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with
thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not abandon
them.” Through Jesus, we see the manifestation of the power of
God. This same power of God is given to us too in the Holy Spirit.
As a consequence, we are now children of God, the adopted sons and daughters of
our Heavenly Father. The gift of sonship is not within our power but can
only be received as a gift. For this reason, we are greater than John the
Baptist because the Holy Spirit lives in us and makes us His adopted sons and
daughters. This great dignity that is bestowed on us comes purely from
His grace alone. We do not deserve to be God’s children. But
He chose us in Christ just as He chose Israel to be His people out of His
goodness and bounty.
But what does it take for
His kingdom to work in our lives? What God requires of us is that we make
ourselves available. If we want God to work in and through us, we must be
docile and submissive to His grace. God only works through those who are
humble and lowly, like John the Baptist, Mary, the apostles and the
saints. If God permitted the Israelites to suffer exile and humiliation,
it was precisely because they needed to be brought low before the Lord could
raise them high. They were depending on their own strength and might to
fight their enemies. They were arrogant and relied on their wealth, army
and resources instead of trusting in the Lord.
Secondly, we must be in
love with Him. John the Baptist was deeply in love with the Lord.
He was singular minded in His mission. His whole life was given to the
Lord. He had no purpose in life other than to fulfill his mission as the
messenger to prepare for the Lord’s coming. That was what Jesus said
about him when he confirmed John the Baptist as the Elijah who was to
return. Like Elijah, John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit of the
Lord. (cf Lk
1:17) Like Elijah, he was to prepare the world to welcome the
Lord. (cf Mal
3:23-24)
Accordingly we too are
called to learn from John the Baptist in his docility to the grace of
God. Jesus remarked, “Since John the Baptist came, up to this present
time, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are
taking it by storm.” What does He mean by this? It does not mean
that the kingdom of God is brought about by violence. What Jesus is
demanding of us is that we seize the opportunity since it is a time of
grace. We must not allow grace to pass us by. Are we ready to seize
the grace that the Lord is giving to us during this time of Advent, a time of
hope and a time of renewal in His love?
If so, we must imitate the
spirit of St John the Baptist and be receptive to his message of
repentance. The way to repentance begins by hearing the Word of
God. Like John, we need to make time to withdraw into the desert to
listen to what the Lord is saying to us. A sincere response to the Word
of God is demonstrated in repentance of heart and a turning to the Lord.
If we have not done so, we must quickly celebrate the sacrament of
reconciliation with a contrite and repentant heart. Before the Lord can bestow
upon us His graces, we must remove the hardness of our heart.
Like John the Baptist, we
must show our sincerity in loving Him. We must also become His messenger
in our own way. We must point people towards Jesus. They too are
looking for signs of the presence of God and His love in their lives. Yet
all the time, we must never forget that God’s love for us is not dependent on
whether we do big or small things but that we do everything out of love for
Him. When we cooperate with Him, He will act. He is looking for
those who will accept Him, for those who are receptive to His graces. He will
make use of us as He did with John the Baptist to bring glory to Him.
Truly, if, like the
Israelites, we are discouraged in life, then know that God wants to restore us
all to the fullness of life. There is no need to be afraid in the face of
failure, disappointments and setbacks. This is because with the Lord we
can overcome all things. We just need to hold on to the promise of the
Lord in faith and in hope that He will fulfill His promises in due time for God
is the Faithful One. He is after all our creator and our
redeemer. So let us not lose sight of this gift of the Kingdom that
God is offering us in Christ as we open our hearts to receive Him.
Written by The Most Rev
William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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